Nationwide’s online banking goes down again

"Is the SECOND time this month I have been left with no access to my own money due to YOUR mistakes! It's disgraceful! 2/2"

Jesus some people are ungrateful. Two downtimes in a month after years of up time? Oh yeah, you don't remember the good times do you? No, just the bad.

Sod off and put your money under the matress next time if you're so worried about having access to your cash.

If only my wife went down as much as my online banking I'd be a very rich man.

They probably use Virgin Media as their ISP... however the total failure of much of VM's network since midday Friday (21/7/2017) is astonishling absent from the press. It's only just beginning to come back online now, 10:00 Monday (24/7/2017). VM even took their own service status offline rather than actually communicate with any of their customers about the failure.

The only good thing about the Nationwide

is at least you know there aren't any fat cat shareholders in the loop.

Apart from that, they are no worse - and no better - than any other bank I have used.

Banks

Why have one current account open a few and then you protect yourself from this kind of problem.

Try Sterling or Monzo internet only banks....

Am I the only one that thinks the occasional planned weekend maintenance is perfectly fine even for a bank? This only affected telephone and online banking, ATMs and cards were still useable and customers were notified well in advance.

Surely it's the price we pay if a bank wants to invest in keeping their infrastructure modernised? Better that than the "if it aint broke dont touch it" approach favoured by banks towards the end of the 20th Century.

Work overran by at least 12 hours

The original maintenance slot was due to finish at 12pm UK on Sunday and overran by at least 13 hours (I received a text notification overnight, around 1:17am I think). The downtime highlights clear problems in the project plans for implementation and backout. A "no-go" should have been declared a lot earlier and even if it was, having a 12-hour backout plan doesn't seem good.

Banks and other companies are in an increasingly difficult position because of 24-hour working. Standard "batch" processes the banks relied on (and still do) for many years, just don't work. These sorts of companies need people with bigger vision and better ideas.

Some people...

Should try going back to the way banking used to be.

Open from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm Monday to Friday, closed for lunch between 12:00 and 13:00.

Really handy for those who worked weekdays and could only get out during lunch :-(

Risk

When you let Risk Management and the business decide which risks to accept on your IT systems then sometimes these risks are realised.

Old school technical and engineering approaches may seem painful to the uninitiated but they work when implemented correctly. All companies need people with this mind set who have a direct interest in ensuring the continuity of our systems. You cannot outsource this responsibility.

AC because now I work for an outsourcer and have direct experience and knowledge.

So, they tweet the system is going down for planned maintenance the same day. Not very planned else they would have powered up their backup system and let customers use that. Then they could do maintenance during the week when more staff are about. Perhaps they need a project manager?

To be fair, they are actually one of the most reliable when it comes to online access.

Almost all of their outages are pre-communicated before hand, and being in the IT game I can understand how scheduled maintenance can overrun. It happens.

Truth be told, no access to the app or online bank is nothing compared to the full NO-access-to-any-of-your-money-whatsoever NatWest or the rest of that gang have on a frustratingly regular basis. if nationwide have overrunning scheduled maintenance (which the others seem to have no maintenance...) limiting app/web access in aid of staving off any NatWest style full on outages, i'm all for it.

Is this because of SAP ?

SAP Banking Services, like other SAP products require downtime. Everything other than the bootstrap is in the database and there's only one copy of the code/user data. So you will take downtime when you do maintenance. And if it goes wrong, there's no likely quick fix. Someone should have warned them. Oh yeah, they did.

Oh no... I couldn't access my online banking for 30hrs... what a crime... some one should be shot for this outrage...

May the first persons up against the wall... be those whining little toe rags who's cries of faux outrage point to an utter lack of anything interesting or meaningful happening in their sad little lives.

I'm a customer... I couldn't access my bank statements until this morning... end result.. I waited... disruptions to my life... feck all... If anything the only actual real life result from this whole thing.. It's made me despise these little whiny tossers even more... Gawd forbid anything monumental happens that actually disrupts their lives... they couldn't cope with the stress, their heads would explode from all the ranting and raving they were doing... We'd see bodies laying in the street headless with blood and brain matter splattered all over the nearest cash points (which were working fine, as were card transactions... you just couldn't look at your statements online you feckless losers).

I've had various Nationwide savings and current accounts for donkey's years - in fact I've migrated other accounts to them because they were the most reliable and helpful of all the bunch I've had over the years, Midland, First direct, Halifax, B&B etc etc. I've seen other banks come and go and watched numerous IT disasters with some amusement, but I've no complaint at all over my Nationwide service, (and no, I have no affiliation with them...).

We're carrying out planned maintenance this weekend

Nationwide: We're carrying out planned maintenance this weekend. From midnight Saturday 5 August until 5am on Sunday 6 August.

For over 3 years Nationwide's service has been excellent. Unlike Barclays they haven't suddenly closed my account and accused me of laundering money. Unfortunately, I must say I'm slightly alarmed because it seems the planned maintenance happens every couple of weeks. It's beyond inconvenient especially for those who are self employed. I have a personal account with Lloyds and have never once been locked out of Online Banking in over 4 years (could just be good luck and coincidence, but it has me thinking of switching).

Nationwide Internet Banking and Mobile App banking both down again today. They're giving no ETA for restoring services. And speaking as a customer, when I just phoned their telephone banking to try and make payments etc I was told they have no way of doing any banking over the phone. In other words there's no Plan B other than finding a branch and walking in which I find slightly astonishing.