a worry for INTERNET banking

trashcan_2

Just a thought for people who have a large amount of money In a INTERNET only based account.

If there is a Northern rock crises again, could the INTERNET banks website crash under the weight of people trying to get there money out? And if that is the only way to get at your money you would be stuck. At leased queuing outside a band for hours you know you will eventually get to the tills.

BruceyBonus

Or you would know that the FSCS covers you for up to £35,000 so there really would be no need to panic?

Oblivion

trashcan wrote: »

Just a thought for people who have a large amount of money In a INTERNET only based account.

If there is a Northern rock crises again, could the INTERNET banks website crash under the weight of people trying to get there money out? And if that is the only way to get at your money you would be stuck. At leased queuing outside a band for hours you know you will eventually get to the tills.

Depends what you call a large amount of money. As BruceyBonus has already pointed out, you are already covered for up to £35,000 and if the Chancellor ever pulls his finger out and honours the promises he made back in September 2007, we can hopefully look forward to a higher guarantee figure in due course.

As someone who is physically limited in how much I can get about, internet banking has been a godsend to me and I can't imagine life without it now.
I did get a scare when the run on NR started because I had way over the guarantee limit with them at the time and spent 4 days being unable to access their website. That was a sobering experience, but I doubt very much if we will see a repetition of that scenario again.

Dave.

nilrem_2

Oblivion wrote: »

if the Chancellor ever pulls his finger out and honours the promises he made back in September 2007, we can hopefully look forward to a higher guarantee figure in due course.

I would not expect too much, IMHO he has quietly and conveniently forgotten about those promises especially after his 'underlings' (who are in the real world) pointed out how much it would cost!

It would be wonderful if the guarantee was lifted to the suggested £100k but some how I think it will remain fantasy!

Oblivion

nilrem wrote: »

I would not expect too much, IMHO he has quietly and conveniently forgotten about those promises especially after his 'underlings' (who are in the real world) pointed out how much it would cost!

It would be wonderful if the guarantee was lifted to the suggested £100k but some how I think it will remain fantasy!

Actually, it needn't cost any more if administered properly, i.e. an undertaking by FSA institutions rather than a funded solution, because the actual likelihood of a bank / bs going under is pretty unlikely in my opinion.

But we still need a higher guarantee because this is about people's perception and peace of mind. It's about restoring faith in a system that has been badly shaken by the NR fiasco.

Stompa

A lot of internet banks state in their T&C's that they may suspend access to accounts for x days under exceptional circumstances.

nilrem_2

Oblivion wrote: »

Actually, it needn't cost any more if administered properly, i.e. an undertaking by FSA institutions rather than a funded solution, because the actual likelihood of a bank / bs going under is pretty unlikely in my opinion.

But we still need a higher guarantee because this is about people's perception and peace of mind. It's about restoring faith in a system that has been badly shaken by the NR fiasco.

I agree entirely and if one of the big banks did go pear shaped the repercussions would be so great that IMHO any guarantee would be useless anyway! The FSA guarantee is a bit like the Nuclear deterrent, better at preventing a problem than effecting a cure!

someone

trashcan wrote: »

At leased queuing outside a band for hours you know you will eventually get to the tills.

But in any case once you get to the till there you would most likely have to do a BACS, the volume of transactions the bank has to handle could result in a situation just like the internet bank.

IBM was in a few months ago gave a lecture at uni on how to cope with more transactions than you can handle. They used the example of the Argos website, it will now (after IBM helped them out) detect when it can not serve any more customer at the time, will deliver a simple "Were sorry, try again" message to new customers landing on the home page, but will keep customers that are shopping on. This is like letting one person in when one person exits.

Problem is solutions like this are normally only added once the problem is seen

amcluesent

>how much it would cost!<

There's no 'cost' because this 'guarantee' is a sham anyhow. The BoE just runs the printing presses faster for more lovely fiat currency.