My bank has a malfunction: how bad is that?

It sometimes happens that a bank has a malfunction. You will then not be able to make any payments in the app at all. Not even via iDeal. How bad is that? And what is the best thing to do then? iPhoned helps you.

Is your bank out of order?

It was a big hit last week: ING had a malfunction for fifteen hours, as a result of which customers could not look in the app to see their balance and could not make payments. It’s not often that a failure lasts this long, but every bank goes down sometimes.

In the case of ING, something went wrong with the communication between the servers of the website and the app. According to the bank, 200 IT professionals have worked hard to solve the problem.

Unfortunately, banks are usually not that transparent about what exactly is going on. Usually you have to find out because your banking app is not working. Then you go to Twitter or a website such as Allestoringen.nl and see others complaining too. Only if it takes a long time will the bank let you know – but usually without a concrete explanation.

Shouldn’t a bank just always be available?

There is no law that stipulates that a bank must always be available via the app. There are rules that iDeal and debit card payments may not be disrupted for more than two hours, but it is mainly about an obligation to work to resolve the malfunction.

In practice, banks are almost always online. Every banking app in the Netherlands is available more than 99 percent of the time, with the exception of ING this month. We are only very aware of it when things don’t work for a while, because we not only buy a lot, but also often want to check our balance.

ING has coined the term ‘bored banking’ for this: people who want to see how much money is in their account at any free moment. Of course, it doesn’t help that we always have our balance ready via a widget these days. If it doesn’t work then it will be noticed immediately.

How does such a malfunction arise?

Although a bank can be unavailable for all kinds of reasons, there are two main reasons. First of all, banks are a target of outside attacks. For example, via DDoS attacks that overload the systems. As a bank, it is actually impossible to fully protect yourself against this. However, the banks are working together to defend themselves against it as well as possible.

In addition, technical failures can occur, as happened at ING. Behind the scenes, a lot of different systems play a part, so that you can see your balance and pay on your iPhone. Something can always go wrong with a database, a connection or even an internet outage. It is unrealistic to expect any service, even a bank, to work 100 percent of the time.

What should I do if my bank has a malfunction?

Bank failures won’t go away anytime soon, so you better prepare well. This means, among other things, that you don’t postpone important payments until the last minute. Think about paying taxes. Worried about not being able to order food? Then make sure you always have food at home.

If you really can’t handle the possibility that your bank is temporarily offline, you can consider opening an account with a second bank. If one bank has a malfunction, you can always pay with the other bank. Please note that having an account usually entails costs.

Does your bank have a malfunction and do you want to make a payment? Then you just need patience. Usually faults are resolved within a few hours.

Pay with your iPhone

If everything works properly, you can easily pay anywhere with your iPhone thanks to Apple Pay. Whether you do that by holding your Apple Watch against an ATM, or by buying something on your Mac via Touch ID. Want to know how that works? We explain how to set up Apple Pay and how secure Apple Pay is.

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