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Australian Bank's System Outage Leaves 9 Million Customers Without Cash (reuters.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the down-and-under dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: National Australia Bank on Saturday suffered what it described as a "nationwide outage" to some of its technology systems, leaving customers unable to access banking services or withdraw money. Customers took to social media to vent their frustrations, with some saying they were left unable to pay for groceries or refuel their cars...

National Australia Bank is one of Australia's four largest retail banks with a customer base of 9 million, according to its website... The Bank of New Zealand, a NAB subsidiary, also experienced outages on Saturday across New Zealand, but the spokesman was unable to confirm a connection between the two incidents.

11 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Always carry cash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Always carry cash, and two different types of credit cards. I have a visa, mastercard and $200 cash on me, plus bank cards. Enough for some gas, food or a cheap hotel if needed.

    1. Re:Always carry cash by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 5, Funny

      Always carry cash, and two different types of credit cards. I have a visa, mastercard and $200 cash on me, plus bank cards

      I always carry a Smith and Wesson. With one of those, I find I can get as much cash, credit cards, and jewellery and watches as I want.

    2. Re:Always carry cash by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

      I generally carry more, in both dollar terms and number of credit cards. However, this is of limited utility when a merchant’s payment processor goes down— you might be ok for now, but how long can you last? In an emergency, even a liberal amount of cash can go quickly. The systems today really aren’t sufficiently robust to handle the contingencies.

  2. Here is a better source by El+Cubano · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Reuters article is lacking details. news.com.au has a story with more details.

    It appears that their payment processing was down too. So, not just retail customers with accounts at NAB, but also merchants who use them for payment processing were not able to accept payments. The article I read does not state that clearly, but the taxi patron seemed to complain that it was the inability of the cabbie to accept a card payment that was the problem, rather than that his own individual card did not work.

    It sucks when you are the customer and the service fails, but moreso when you are the collateral damage.

    1. Re: Here is a better source by reboot246 · · Score: 2

      Imagine what would happen if cash were eliminated from your country. That's the goal of the financial industry and the goal of some governments.

  3. There's a lesson here by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Your emergency supplies - which you surely have - should include some cash.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  4. and when you go to an store that does not take cas by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Funny

    and when you go to an store that does not take cash>

  5. Cashless Society == Bad Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is one the reasons why a cashless society is a bad idea. Suppose the electronic systems were down for a couple of weeks. How is one without cash going to buy food, fuel, essential medicine, and pay for the rent/mortgage? In fact this is one of the less important reasons why its a bad idea. A quick summary of the other reasons why a cashless society is bad:
              - Government and the Corporations get to monitor EVERY transaction made. No privacy. Anything and everything may be used against you now or in the future.
              - WIth the push of a button the Government (and perhaps the Banks too) can turn off your money.
                        - No money for rent/mortgage, food, essential medicine, or fuel.
                        - No money to pay the lawyer to fight it.
              - Bank have absolute control of your money. You don't.
                        - Fees for every kind of transfer, even small ones. No other option. Its not like you can just pull your money out in cash.
                        - Fees for the storage of your money. Your money dwindles away if you don't spend it. They can motivate you to spend more by increasing fees, and/or charing negative interest.
                        - No way to opt out of dealing with the banks. Best option is maybe getting to switch banks.
                        - Banks can dictate how your spend your money -- increasing fees for payments to parties they don't like, or denying them altogether.

    1. Re:Cashless Society == Bad Idea by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 2

      This is one the reasons why a cashless society is a bad idea. Suppose the electronic systems were down for a couple of weeks.

      What if water or electricity went down for weeks? The simple fact is that as these services become more important, they also become more resilient to failure. These days, outages are generally contained to hours rather than days, and that is an acceptable loss for the benefit they give (ie much greater accountability of transactions).

    2. Re:Cashless Society == Bad Idea by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      These days, outages are generally contained to hours rather than days, and that is an acceptable loss for the benefit they give (ie much greater accountability of transactions).

      When you have a hostile government that's a bug, not a feature. Except, of course, to those who would control you.

      When the last victimless crime is removed from the books, and the last corrupt cop is put in the ground, I'll support a cashless society.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  6. Australia is pretty much cashless by Harlequin80 · · Score: 3, Informative

    And these issues happen very very rarely and, even when they do the impact in minimal.

    9 million people without cash? Bullshit. Technically I am a NAB customer as I have a NAB cc and a NAB savings account. They are literally never used and exist purely as a backup. I cannot remember the last time I used them. We have a population of ~25 million people, and while NAB is a major bank there is no way in hell they are the primary bank for 9 million.

    I also use android pay for 99% of my store transactions and only ever use my card when I exceed the phone pay limit, which seems to be somewhere around $450. I would be lucky to use cash for 1 transaction a fortnight.

    Finally while you may have been unable to do EFTPOS transactions out of your savings accounts credit cards still have offline capabilities. So if you were one of the really really rare people, who only has a savings account and only banks with NAB then maybe you would have had an issue if you tried to do something during the brief outage. Everyone else would have just used the office CC transaction model.