Bank of Ireland hit by debit card failure

Customers of the bank of Ireland were hit with a debit card glitch on Thursday that left them unable to withdraw money or pay for goods.

  0 6 comments

Bank of Ireland hit by debit card failure

Editorial

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The problems were exacerbated by the fact that holiday season has arrived, meaning that several bank customers were left unable to use their cards while abroad.

According to the bank, one in seven customers were affected by the problem which it says has now been resolved.

The problem attracted fierce criticism from consumers and politicians. "Bank of Ireland is leaving customers high and dry again as ATM and point-of-sale transactions are failing for some," said Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty. 

"There are reports of Irish people abroad who can't pay hotel bills and are now in danger of missing their flights. Sort it out. This is happening all too often."

The Bank of Ireland incident follows the recent outage of the Visa payment system which affected cardholders across Europe earlier this month. 

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Comments: (6)

Lynton Buxton

Lynton Buxton Marketing Manager at Parseq

The good old dependable cheque remains the fallback option in times of need and, with the current rollout of cheque imaging within the UK, the cheque clearing cycle for value and certainty of fate is known by 23:59 at the latest on the next working day after the working day of paying in the cheque.  Cheque clearance is becoming much quicker!

Ketharaman Swaminathan

Ketharaman Swaminathan Founder and CEO at GTM360 Marketing Solutions

Michael Kyritsis

Michael Kyritsis Lead Solution Consultant at ACI

Lynton, what about the reports of Irish people abroad who can't pay hotel bills? A cheque wouldn't be acceptable in that situation.

Craig Lawrance

Craig Lawrance Sales Exec at Starkspur Ltd

I see a trend here with the Banks.  Are these legacy providers struggling with too much legacy infrastructure?  With a variety of IT intrastrcture that's integrated and functioning, most of the time, but perhaps not all of it?

Anthony Walton

Anthony Walton CEO at Iliad Solutions

Increasingly complex and aging legacy systems + dash to new technology + outdated testing practices = more stories like this every month.

Lynton Buxton

Lynton Buxton Marketing Manager at Parseq

Michael (ACl), I was not targetting the BOI incident in particular and obviously am aware that cheques are not acceptable in all situations. However, with recent IT failures at several financial institutions, I am highlighting the fact that the cheque still has a place as a fall back payment method when required even in this modern era of alternative payment methods.

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