The recent online problems at Bank of Nova Scotia BNS-T highlight the harsh truth of electronic banking – it’s never going to be 100 per cent reliable. Always have a backup.
Scheduled maintenance performed Nov. 8-12 resulted in some Scotiabank customers not being able to access their accounts, or see some of the accounts listed when they did log in. One reader reported seeing duplicate transaction in his account.
I reached out to Scotiabank clients on Nov. 15 via the social media platform X
and some access problems were still being reported. Online banking is supposed to be the 24-7 answer for busy people monitoring their accounts and making payments and transfers. When you can’t access your online accounts, it’s like someone turned off the lights.
Fear of service interruptions is one of the reasons why people stick to Big Six banks instead of trying challenger banks that operate strictly online. But outages are going to happen in online banking, regardless of who you deal with.
That’s why your banking backup plan should include a no-fee transactional account at an alternative bank that gives you a competitive rate on savings while allowing you to pay for purchases via debit, make e-transfers and pay bills. Keep a few hundred dollars in this account in case your main chequing account is unavailable. Think about having enough to buy groceries or a pay a utility bill that comes due.
Having a backup account at an alternative bank is also a kind of audition. You may find you like the combination of zero account fees, decent interest and a full range of transactions so much that your Big Six bank becomes your backup.
Big banks do have their branch networks to fall back on if you’re blocked from getting into your account online, but what’s that worth to busy people who can’t spare time to line up? I was in a bank branch recently to take care of a piece of business I couldn’t do online and the wait was considerable.
One final e-commerce survival tool is the website Downdetector, which tracks service outages in the financial services, telecom, social media, gaming and more. An answer to the obvious question when you can’t log in – is it me, or them?
As for Scotiabank, its response to my questions included the following statement: “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue caused. We have advised our clients that we will pro-actively waive overlimit fees and credit card interest charges with a payment due date of November 11-15, 2024, and we will work with them to correct any incorrect entries on their accounts.”
