Westpac online glitch flares up again for some

Westpac headquarters in Auckland. The bank said the outages were isolated but it was urgently working on a solution. Photo / John Weekes

Glitches with Westpac’s online banking have resurfaced, but the bank says it’s working urgently to fix the problems.

Some customers last week voiced displeasure, with one saying her son was overseas and running out of money.

She said soon after the glitch was fixed on Thursday, it returned.

“All seemed back to normal until yesterday but now he can’t get in again,” she told the Herald today.

“Westpac says it’s just a few overseas customers with the problem, but he’s bumped into several other Kiwis over the past week with the same experience.”

She said worried customers received generic replies and requests to ring the bank on a toll call or collect.

“But no one knows how to make a collect call,” she said.

She expected these travellers to change banks on their return to New Zealand.

Another customer was concerned this morning about having no online banking access.

“Westpac customer support has at least become faster in responding and I was able to get some simple answers about my accounts but that is far from proper banking. The whole situation is now truly surreal,” they said.

“Over the past week, a small number of customers have experienced issues logging into Westpac One online banking,” a Westpac spokesman said.

“Access was restored for all customers last Thursday. However, the issues have returned for a minority of those customers and we are working urgently to resolve them,” he added.

Westpac did not say what caused the glitch.

The bank said anyone with online banking problems could phone 0800 400 600 from New Zealand.

And it said anyone overseas needing support could phone +64 9 912 8000, and Westpac would reimburse them for the cost of their call.