'Apology won't put food on the table': Dire straits for families after bank blunder

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2023, 11:30AM

Westpac is apologising for leaving customers out of pocket after transactions made on the busiest shopping days before Christmas were not processed correctly and only put through a fortnight later.

A technology glitch is being blamed for MasterCard credit and debit payments made on December 22 and 23 not going through properly.

The bank confirmed the affected transactions had been put through on Thursday night.

Earlier Westpac said transactions on December 24 had been affected by the processing glitch but a bank spokesperson said this afternoon this was no longer the case.

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Furious Westpac customers have reported being suddenly left unexpectedly hundreds of dollars in overdraft, some saying they have barely enough money to pay for groceries. Many say they will take months to get back into the black and said it was a dreadful way to start 2023.

One customer said they were now nearly $810 overdrawn.

“I don’t know how to pay for food, as whatever funds coming in will be soaked up by this $800.

“An apology is not going to put food on the table for our four children.”

One single mother on a benefit told the Herald she discovered her account unexpectedly overdrawn by $133.

”My family will suffer for the remainder of the school holidays,” she said.

“It’s only $133 but that’s all I had to get me through until Tuesday when I get my tax credits. That won’t even cover it, still leaving me overdrawn by $10 until my benefit payment on Thursday to get me out of the overdraft.

“There’s just no way I can ever make up that money.”

A grandmother raising her 10-year-old grandson said she was off to buy school supplies today but instead woke to discover she was $327 in debt.

“Can’t see through my tears to write in detail how I feel about this. Have no idea how I am going to catch up to see a positive balance back in my account,” she told the Herald.

In a post on its Facebook page, Westpac said all affected payments should now be showing and any overdraft fees and interest incurred as a result of the mistake would be automatically waived.

“Due to a technology issue, some MasterCard credit and debit card payments made on December 23rd/24th were not processed correctly.

“Affected payments were processed last night and should now be visible in accounts.

“We apologise for any confusion.”

Westpac said it was unable to address specific questions today surrounding a lack of communication between the bank and customers and claims bank accounts were not reconciling with holiday purchases.

In the meantime scores of customers have taken to social media to vent their frustration at the blunder.

One woman said she had been left in overdraft which threatened to affect her ability to pay upcoming automatic bill payments.

“Not good enough. Xmas/New Years is hard enough due to payment day changes and now this. Should have given us warning when it happened not days later,” she posted.

“Very frustrating Westpac. I’m so careful with my money and just woken to missing money! Single mother here and now don’t have funds for groceries, and as I saw that money had been taken out on those dates!” said another.

“Woke up to $400 in OD,” posted yet another customer.

Another customer said the banking mistake had left customers unexpectedly in overdraft and that his transactions didn’t add up.

“Even though those ‘missing’ transactions were actually showing on those days suddenly days’ worth of transactions are missing from people’s account statements,” Ken Fuse told the Herald.

Massey University banking expert Claire Matthews said the biggest issue centred on the lack of communication from Westpac given it had two weeks to alert customers.

“The biggest thing is that people haven’t been aware there’s an issue. Even if you’re keeping a basic track of your accounts you’re not going to notice every transaction going through.”

While they may not have been able to contact every affected customer the bank could have put out a press release yesterday to alert customers that there had been a problem so that people were given an opportunity to address the situation, she said.

The bank should also be providing assistance to those with immediate needs given there was no advance warning, she said.

“I think Westpac should be encouraging customers with problems to contact them and providing assistance, perhaps with additional increase in their overdraft facility beyond what has been created by the transactions so that if people have an immediate need for funds they’ve got an ability to spend what they need to.”

Matthews said the situation would have been a shock to many.

“If you’re managing on the breadline then suddenly finding yourself in overdraft for a couple of hundred dollars can be quite devastating and cause major problems.”