No access to PO savings accounts for two days

cmgurney

Like many others across the UK I am finalising my self assessment tax return this weekend. It is all complete except for the end year tax certificates for my two Post Office savings accounts. The Post Office do not send out paper copies of the certificates, so online access to accounts is essential. Unbelievably, the Post Office decided to schedule maintenance for the savings section of their website this weekend of all weekends. According to the PO's savings helpline, access to customers' accounts will not be restored until 9am tomorrow. This has got me thinking about the legal aspects of banking / saving which is conducted entirely online. Where customers' only access to their funds is online, are there any regulations requiring financial providers to guarantee access? Or can they take a website down for as long as they fancy? For me this is fortunately just a weekend's inconvenience, but what if I had actually needed instant access to the money in my 'instant access' account?

AirlieBird

Dont know how you are trying to access it but Post Office Money savings site is fully functional for me.

cmgurney

What browser are you using AirlieBird? PO telephone helpline confirmed the site was down until tomorrow.

cmgurney

I still cannot access my account normally in Chrome. I get an error message: "We are currently undergoing scheduled maintenance. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for your patience. We’ll be up and running again shortly." Clearing browsing data and cookies makes no difference. However, I can access the site with no problems in Edge or using a Chrome icognito window. So I now have my tax certificates. I am most grateful to you for your help.

jungle_jane

That's strange - I logged on to Post Office Savings yesterday in order to close my account. They are so hard to deal with and get your details updated that I have had enough of them. I was able to shut my account with no hassle.

cmgurney

Just to confirm that it's all working fine for me as well now. I appreciate your help, AirlieBird and jungle jane.