Bank computers never make mistakes, do they ?
Discussion
When ever ones reads of a case of unexplained debits from ones bank account, and you suspect you been the victim of some sort of unauthorised use of your debit card, the banks get it is that you must have been careless with your pin number. THE COMPUTER IS NEVER WRONG. Well, this morning, the wife was helping while I set up a few bank transfers on line, he accidentally read out the wrong sort code and account number, which meant the amount to be transferred went back into the account it was being taken from. Well it should have done. Instead, the amount was deducted, but not debited. It's gone into a black hole somewhere. A visit to the bank is now required. But the thought that occurs to me is what sort of software is the bank running to allow this to happen? It should've either done what I just mentioned, put it straight bank into the same account, or stopped me making the mistake of putting it back where it come from. Thus, I wonder just how many other 'errors' exist in the banks software ? For which the customer is blamed.
robinessex said:
Well, this morning, the wife was helping while I set up a few bank transfers on line, he accidentally read out the wrong sort code and account number
Something you want to share with us ?Anyway, it depends on the type of transfer you were setting up. If it was a "Faster Payment" it should, probably, have bounced straight back into the account - anything else could be languishing in a holding account pending a batch job running to complete the "clearing" process sometime this century.
Yeah, it varies. I had Santander (then Alliance and Leicester) try and create an ISA account and transfer the permitted balance into it from my current account with them. Seems simple enough, but the money left one account and didn't arrive in the other.
It took over a year and eventually after a convoluted process of going around their complaints procedure repeatedly, being told such gems as "you took it out in cash from the branch" (became even more of a joke when I did want to try and take that much cash out), then an FSA complaint before it reached the other end. With a little extra thanks to the FSA. Hopefully it won't take so long for you.
It took over a year and eventually after a convoluted process of going around their complaints procedure repeatedly, being told such gems as "you took it out in cash from the branch" (became even more of a joke when I did want to try and take that much cash out), then an FSA complaint before it reached the other end. With a little extra thanks to the FSA. Hopefully it won't take so long for you.
My gf deals with this kind of thing. You'd think it would all be automated, but they tend to do things like printing off big lists of numbers from some archaic system onto paper, then retyping them all into new excel spreadsheets, before transferring the money back manually using some kind of chip and pin card.
At least that's how it sounds to me, my brain tends to switch off when she talks about work.
At least that's how it sounds to me, my brain tends to switch off when she talks about work.
Edited by mr_fibuli on Friday 30th May 11:16
Are you sure that your 'credit' back into the account will show up immediately? I don't think many banks operate their online accounts in real time.
I suspect that the debit to your account shows immediately so that you don't think you have more money in the account than is actually available, but that the transfer will take place later in the day.
I suspect that the debit to your account shows immediately so that you don't think you have more money in the account than is actually available, but that the transfer will take place later in the day.
marshalla said:
robinessex said:
Well, this morning, the wife was helping while I set up a few bank transfers on line, he accidentally read out the wrong sort code and account number
Something you want to share with us ?Anyway, it depends on the type of transfer you were setting up. If it was a "Faster Payment" it should, probably, have bounced straight back into the account - anything else could be languishing in a holding account pending a batch job running to complete the "clearing" process sometime this century.
Banks computer systems are no better or worse than any other business of a similar size.They are just as likely to have bugs. Don't forget that much of their software will be bought in, and then heavily modified to make it work with other systems. It will have its own bugs, and some that have been added by customisation.
In the early days of intenet banking a workmate logged into his account first thing one morning and found he had a few million in credit. An hour or so later the whole site was "down for maintenance"
In the early days of intenet banking a workmate logged into his account first thing one morning and found he had a few million in credit. An hour or so later the whole site was "down for maintenance"
Depends how you sent the payment and what the Banks rules around fraud are.
If it's a three day settlement then the payment should come back as normal in three days and you only have an issue if it doesn't.
If it's a faster payment you may find the bank put a stop on it as they might class it as suspicious activity, after all it's not normal to do transfers to yourself.
If it's a three day settlement then the payment should come back as normal in three days and you only have an issue if it doesn't.
If it's a faster payment you may find the bank put a stop on it as they might class it as suspicious activity, after all it's not normal to do transfers to yourself.
You've done the banking equivalent of googling google and created a financial black hole so dark and deep that your children's children will be feeling the effects for most of their life.
Well no, you've probably triggered anti-fraud fail-safe or 'computer says no' error - you can probably let it fix itself overnight (Bank Computers can do wonderful things after a good night sleep) or call them and they'll fix it.
In my experience there are very, very few 'glitches' with banking systems, what there are, are thousands upon thousands of anti-fraud and anti-money laundering fail-safes that are either thrust onto them or have come about to over-come a known vulnerabilities - most of the staff you speak to won't know about them, partly through the sheer number of them, and partly because they're very secretive about the measures you take.
Well no, you've probably triggered anti-fraud fail-safe or 'computer says no' error - you can probably let it fix itself overnight (Bank Computers can do wonderful things after a good night sleep) or call them and they'll fix it.
In my experience there are very, very few 'glitches' with banking systems, what there are, are thousands upon thousands of anti-fraud and anti-money laundering fail-safes that are either thrust onto them or have come about to over-come a known vulnerabilities - most of the staff you speak to won't know about them, partly through the sheer number of them, and partly because they're very secretive about the measures you take.
Edited by P-Jay on Friday 30th May 16:37
Worked in that industry 6 or so years ago. The programs they used were seriously out of date to the point of which many things you couldn't just click refund etc or vice versa often I had to set a reminder 4 weeks later on the computer to remind me to do something on the person's account so it would actually go through properly. Also when you left said reminder didn't get transferred to someone else so the customer would obviously end up calling back the following month for something that could of been done instantly with a small bit of programming. Would never work there again.
I spend a lot of time at work testing new software for a bank before it goes live. We usually do a good job spotting all bugs but at the end of the day most testing is certified by bankers and they have no time for stupid testing, as they say, so it can happen that some bugs go unnoticed. bank software is just like any other type of software. There are rigorous procedures of course but still....
In the mid 90s I got a building society statement that overstated my balance on a rarely used savings account by 10 times. Decimal point moved one space to the right. I guess it could have been a manual data entry error if they were moving from an old system to new. Rather than query it I decided to leave it and wait to see what happened. My logic being if it was uncorrected after, say, 10 years I would be less "guilty" if I closed the account than doing it immediately. Whether in practice my conscience would have allowed me to do it is another matter. Anyway it went five years before the building society corrected it.
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