Northern Rock Demand Online website unavailability

C

ClubMan

Registered User
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Twice in the last week (at the weekend and just now) I have tried to access my NR Demand Online account only to get this message at login time:
We regret that this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later, or telephone our administration office on (01) 480 6050 for further assistance. Opening hours 09.00am - 17.00pm (GMT) Mon - Fri
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I've emailed direct.saver@northernrock-ireland.ie asking them why this is the case and when they expect access to online accounts to be more reliable.
:mad:
 
Do keep us posted on the reply from NR as I have noticed this also. I only check it once a week so it's not a big inconvienence for me
 
I got it too on Saturday and Sunday. Perhaps they took it offline until they updated the interest rate - on Friday it showed 2.6%; on Monday it showed 3%.

Still, I prefer this error message over the maze that is RaboDirect ! You can't withdraw to an external account from your savings account. And you have to add the current and savings accounts manually to be able to transfer between them!

Anyone else worried that Rabo will leave the market in 6 months due to poor take-up? Their rate is no longer the best, the web-site is hard to use, and the DigiPass is cumbersome. And if they do leave, will things go back to the way they were, with NR reducing their rates just enough to beat Anglo?
 
I opened an account with Rabo based on the interest rate for their savings account.

Using the site takes a little getting used to, sussed out how to money around (into and out of Rabo only through the current acc and not the saving directly) is a cumbersome as it having to use the Digipass to confirm the transfer between accounts.

but why question is how you know there is a poor take-up?
 
stobear said:
I opened an account with Rabo based on the interest rate for their savings account.
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I presume you know at this stage that Northern Rock are offering 3.05%? See the best buys list in the are.
 
but why question is how you know there is a poor take-up?
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I'm speculating. I think people will respond to Rabo's advertising blitz but I wonder how many will actually deposit large sums of money with them, given that NR have a better rate and easier to use online banking.

The first time I used the DigiPass it was a novelty. The next time it was irritating. It's not immediately obvious how to move money between Rabo's accounts or how to make withdrawals. Given this, I won't be saving with them until they offer a better rate than NR. Until then, Rabo are down the cost of a DigiPass (I heard €50 which I find hard to believe!) and the admin overhead of setting up the account.

(I'm ignoring Rabo's investment products in this analysis, since I haven't had a chance to compare them to Quinn Life yet.).
 
I stuck €100 in RaboDirect even after Northern Rock trumped them with their 3.05% rate. From experience I generally find it easier to open a few of these high rate accounts and keep them open (assuming the minimum deposit isn't onerous) rather than closing and reopening them when chopping and changing. That way, if one trumps the other on rates it's easy to switch.

RaboDirect and QL investment product charges are available here but it may take some spreadsheet modelling to see how RaboDirect's entry/exit and ongoing charges compare to QL's single charge (annual management charge) charging structure:
  • [broken link removed]
 
MugsGame said:
The first time I used the DigiPass it was a novelty. The next time it was irritating. It's not immediately obvious how to move money between Rabo's accounts or how to make withdrawals. Given this, I won't be saving with them until they offer a better rate than NR. Until then, Rabo are down the cost of a DigiPass (I heard €50 which I find hard to believe!) and the admin overhead of setting up the account.
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I hope you realise how easy it is to install a trojan on any windows PC.

A digipass will prevent a hacker gaining access to your online account even if they have compromised your pc.

Personally I very much like and appreciate the very high level of security used with the account.
 
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ClubMan - yes, I've left €1 in my Rabo savings account for that reason.

nahdoic - I would disagree that it's "easy" to install a "trojan" on "any" Windows PC, but that's another discussion. (And if there was a trojan on my PC, an active
attacker could use a man-in-the-middle attack to subvert the DigiPass.).

Security is about risk analysis and making trade-offs.

I've found (and reported) security issues in banking web-sites before, so I'm not naive about this. Rabo's ease-of-use trade-offs are not acceptable, for me. And if they're not acceptable for me, who understands the risks, I can't see them being acceptable for the general public. Even ignoring the DigiPass, the transfer procedure itself is needlessly cumbersome. The internal accounts should be setup by default; you shouldn't have to go through a multi-step procedure to get money into the savings account from the current account.

NR have chosen to handle the same risks in a different (and IMHO better) way - by limiting external withdrawals to a nominated a/c.


I think my original (perhaps badly expressed) point is being lost. I don't want to discourage people from banking with Rabo. I'm slightly worried I could be cutting my nose off to spite my face - if Rabo do leave the market because people like me stick with NR, will NR drop their rates when Rabo leave?
 
ClubMan said:
I presume you know at this stage that Northern Rock are offering 3.05%? See the best buys list in the are.
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Yes I received notification from NR so the young lads Child benefit and any monetary gifts go that direction and are getting the new interest rate.

I heard (from somewhere) that the Digipass is worth about 15Euro, although saying that my other digipass from my employer when it was shipped from the US shows its value for customs at around $50?
 
According to the T&Cs €15 is what Rabo may at their discretion charge to replace it, but I heard or read a true cost of €50 somewhere.
 
I'm a bit confused... What is the relevance of the cost of the Digipass to the consumer? I presume that RaboDirect have calculated that subsuming the cost of these devices must be justified by the possible savings on reduced fraud/security breaches?
 
The initial cost to the consumer is free. The replacement "cost" is relevant because it explains where the €15 figure comes from.

The "true cost" to Rabo is relevant because they can't make savings on fraud if they don't have any transactions, which seems likely if most of us open accounts for token amounts under €100. So instead they end up with a huge sunk cost for little or no return (though I'm still hoping the deposit account is just an initial foray and they have other competitive products planned which might justify their costs.).
 
Back on topic, NR online access seems to be available again as of 3-ish today ('though a little shaky - twice I got through 4/5 stages just to hit the 'currently unavailable' page...:mad: )

Speaking of annoyances - what's with the 'mandatory' declaration as to the purpose of the withdrawal? I mean, 'if I want to withdraw €500 of my own bloody money, loike...?!?'

D'you think I'll get in trouble for having entered: 'supplying arms to the IRA'? ;)
 
I got the same error on the NR site at lunchtime today. When I called them, they advised me to try again and press the continue button, but that didn't help. They ended up taking the withdrawal instruction by phone, but I was a bit annoyed that this may have cost me one day in delivery of the money to my current account.
 
This is what I got back from NR:
We have experienced some problems with our server since Saturday 21 May. I don't believe it to be a local issue, however the website has only been down temporarily since then and not on a permanent basis.

I would recommend that you delete the cookies and temporary internet files from your PC (the method can be found in the technical help link on the left of our homepage) before your next log on attempt.

There is no specific reason as yet for this unavailability but we are constantly looking at customer issues surrounding the website. We do make these issues very high priority and are trying resolve them as soon as possible.

Yours etc.
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DrMoriarty said:
Speaking of annoyances - what's with the 'mandatory' declaration as to the purpose of the withdrawal? I mean, 'if I want to withdraw €500 of my own bloody money, loike...?!?'

D'you think I'll get in trouble for having entered: 'supplying arms to the IRA'? ;)
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This is strange, I am not aware of any legislation etc. requiring this kind of disclosure for withdrawls. I would query it with them.

Anyway, all you have to put in the field is 'Personal use' or maybe just XXXX (like the entry for the required field for 'postcode' when you don't have one).

If you want to take the piss, fair enough, but there is a chance that they could report this kind of thing to the Gardai under the Criminal Justice Act?
 
CCOVICH said:
If you want to take the piss, fair enough, but there is a chance that they could report this kind of thing to the Gardai under the Criminal Justice Act?
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OK, I'll put 'political donation' next time. Best to be on the right side of the law... ;)
 
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