Bank of NH customers check your balance

[mr_searchlight]

Moderator: please delete or move this post if you find it does not conform.

Folks,

I am a Bank of NH customer. At 7:17 this morning (Tuesday 11-12) I received a warning that a transfer was made and that my Checking account was in arrears.

Going on line I found that a substantial sum of money was moved from my checking to my linked savings putting my checking in an overdrawn situation. A call to customer service indicated that the money was moved without any action from me and the issue was caused by a "Computer Glitch". They provided no other explanation but I question whether this transfer was truly a computer problem or not. While I never "lost" the money I would have been subject to the Banks heavy overdraft fees.

Thankfully I had activated the online banking notifications/warnings and was able to deal with this quickly. For those who don't have these activated or don't bank on line I guess you are on your own.

Without discussing blame and lack of integrity I would urge all Bank of NH customers to check their balances and see if they too were victims of this "Computer Glitch.

[MeredithMan]

Having been in High Tech for 30 years, "computer glitch" is generally a BS phrase for, "I don't know what happened, and even if I do, I'm not allowed to tell you..."

Perhaps they rolled out a new release of software or did some sort of upgrade which caused things to go awry, but SOMETHING was done. Luckily, your funds remained within your accounts, but what if they hadn't? I would recommend escalating to your local branch manager for an explanation.

Good luck.

MM

[rgilfert]

Thanks....I just logged in and set up a bunch of message alerts on my BoNH accounts. Fortunately (for me) everything looks fine...unfortunately (for me) the balances are too darned small!

[Lakesrider]

And that is why I am too nervous to do that Cumberland farms discount card at the gas station......I don;t need that many people knowing or messing around in my checking account.

[wifi]

Just my experience, not coloring your experiences.

Before the name change, when they had their own data center and did their own processing, when I logged in, everything was spot on. The balances were up to date, as well as the transactions.

After the name change, they went to a third party. This company tends to keep the balances up to date, but the transactions don't update until about 8AM. I get up about 3-4AM, and have seen in the transaction large negative balances, where I had made a deposit the day before and everything wasn't posted.

I think they have a warning on their website that they update during the night. Their night and my night aren't the same :) I've never actually received a debit for a negative balance, just observed it online. I have complained, but get the usual excuses. It was so much better the way it used to be.

Ahhh... change......

[MAXUM]

Being an IT guy for good grief 17 years now... I think many consumers of technology often don't understand the shear complexity of what it takes to provide modern day "features" at their finger tips. It's just expected to be there and always work flawlessly. That is way easier said than done!

Not to give the bank any excuses per say but ya know stuff can only be tested so much before it rolls into "production" and you don't always catch "glitches" in a test environment. Even if a company is willing to pony up the $$ to create a complete duplicate test environment subtle differences between the two can be enough to create unforeseen behavior. Sadly because the expectations are so high from customers if the real truth were ever told, it's cost you customers, so technical explanations such as a "glitch" are used and purposely vague. Think of the PR disaster if Bank of NH said this was caused by say a bad code push!

Of course it should be noted that even the explanation of a "glitch" isn't faring so well for some.. IE a certain government web site! :rolleye2:

Technology is great when it works... key word being "when". It's only as flawless as it's creators ;)

[BroadHopper]

I have worn the 'Information Resource Management' hat long enough to know 'computer glitch' will not fly with customers and management. Either you know what the problem is an fix it, you should be all set. If you don't know what the problem is and can't fix it, well you ahould be looking for another job. ;)

[rgilfert]

33 years as an IT professional and I gotsta say that I agree with BroadHopper on this one!!

[extremenewenglander]

a caveat to all! My wife, being in the past in the banking industry, it's not recommended to link your accounts. They won't mention this to you since it relieves them from liablity if your account goes breached in a like situation of this. Best to avoid linking for the best part, but if you do.......be very careful especially in cases when you need to. :eek: