The RBS Computer System Strikes Again!
Or that’s what it looks like according to this article in the Guardian. Here’s the first part.
NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland customers have become the victims of another technical glitch that has resulted in many being unable to pay for fuel at Tesco‘s petrol stations. Reports of the problems spread on social media after customers’ credit cards were declined when they tried to pay for fuel.
I still meet people, who bank with Britain’s most accident-prone bank! Why?
NatWorst Opens The Door To The Fraudsters
Natwest have brought in a system called Get Cash based on a mobile phone app. But according to this on the BBC’s web site, it’s all started to backfire.
It looks to me that the Get Cash app is just too easy a target for fraudsters and it appears to me as a humble programmer and system designer, that they used programmers and designers, who didn’t understand the criminal mind.
If my bank offers me a mobile phone app to do my banking or use a credit card, the answer is no, no a thousand times no!
Incidentally, the computer that does my banking, never leaves my house and sits behind a door with a powerful lock on it.
I usually only draw out cash from a small number of cash machines fairly close to my house or at the Angel.
The Affect of NatWorst on My Zopa Account
I track what is in my Zopa account every morning.
Since the 12th of June, I have had 28 accounts in arrears. On the 27th, this number rose by four. I thought it would have been worse as probably between a quarter and a third of all UK personal bank accounts are eight RBS, NatWorst or Ulster Bank.
It will be interesting to see, if this was a NatWorst effect or just natural in the scheme of things. I think it’s a mixture of both, as after all the turn of the month, is always a time of large numbers of payments. My number of bad debts hasn’t moved since the 7th of June.
Now The Crooks Join In The NatWorst Fiasco
According to ActionFraud, a UK Police web site, crooks have started sending out e-mails purportedly from Stephen Hester to compromise accpounts and steal money. The article is here.
Is This The Truth About the RBS Problems?
The Register also has an article, where it claims a source has told them what happened at RBS and NatWorst. This is an extract.
A serious error committed by an “inexperienced operative” caused the IT meltdown which crippled the RBS banks last week, a source familiar with the matter has told The Register. Job adverts show that at least some of the team responsible for the blunder were recruited earlier this year in India following IT job cuts at RBS in the UK.
The problem isn’t in India, it’s with what haggis-head or collection thereof that decided on the risky strategy. And were they appointed by Fred Goodwin or one of his arse-lickers?
I hope that if you read the article in The Register, you’ll take the only sane action and move to another bank, as soon as RBS or NAtWorst have paid you the compensation, you think you deserve.
A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently, all of the passengers had jumped into the branch to get their money out. The cashiers decided to pay everybody out in 5p. pieces and the result was the extra weight caused the bus to stall and break down.
A Dead Bus Outside NatWorst
Apparently this ruse was tried in 1745 to stop a run on the Bank of England, when Bonnie Prince Charlie was marching on London. In those days though they used sixpences.
On A Clear Disc, You Can Seek Forever
The NatWorst computer problems have reminded me of one of the truest computer maxims.
On a Clear Disc, You Can Seek Forever
So are there any more we should remember? These are some of mine.
If it takes one man, a year to write a computer program, it’ll take two men, two years to write the program and 256 men will take 256 years.
Computers make excellent slaves, but bad masters.
You never lose any data, by taking too many back-ups. And keeping those back-ups in a fireproof environment off-site.
A brilliant reliable programmer will always be the type of person that the CEO says, shouldn’t ever be hired.
Programming productivity is directly proportional to the amount of real ale consumed at lunchtime.
Apples go faster if dropped from a taller building
For every programmer, you should employ at least one software tester.
The likelihood of a severe failure, increases on the square of the distance between the programmers and the installation.
Happy Programming!
Computer Disasters Inc.
Some years ago, I was discussing, what we might do with someone in Metier, if the whole venture had gone bust. I suggested an idea, which keeps coming back to me called Computer Disasters Inc.
NatWorst now is in need of such a company, which I envisaged as the Red Adair of the computer industry. NatWorst will certainly be paying out fees on a scale Red Adair would have thought reasonable.
Why If Something Goes Wrong, Does It Always Happen To Me?
I avoided the NatWorst problem, as I’ve never banked with them, and over the last few years I’ve been very happy with Nationwide.
So today I got my comeuppance.
I have been trying to get a forecast for my pension, which will be paid on my 65th birthday in a few weeks time.
Today the DWP has informed me that they can’t find my National Insurance contributions from the Department of Revenue and Customs.
So now, I will have to navigate myself round what is reputed to be the worst Government system in the UK.
Why am I the one, whose records have got lost?
The Return of NatWorst
Some years ago, I used to do the programming and processing for a company called PressWatch, that rated the coverage of major companies in the UK printed media.
Some time before I programmed the system, NatWest had a string of bottom places and were labelled NatWorst by some financial journalists.
It would appear from its current computer problems, that along with other banks in the RBS Group, it is attempting to claim the bottom place again. Read about it here.
The article says it is a computer glitch. I would describe it as a computer disaster.
A computer glitch is what I’ve just suffered from Nationwide. They said my credit card statement would be ready online on Wednesday. It didn’t arrive until today. But at least, it didn’t cost me any money, although I did worry, that there might have been some illegal transactions, they were sorting out. Especially, as it’s the VISA card, I use for Olympic tickets. But all is now fine.
The Anonymous Widower 