Northern Rock bailed out by Bank of England

The NR systems problems actually started last weekend. On my Dad's advice (he has been predicting financial meltdown perennially since 1974 so well done Dad, at last you're RIGHT!), I had been intending to remove my savings from NR for about two weeks.

I had exactly the kind of problems you are all now reporting last Saturday. I finally managed to move about 75% last Monday over the phone followed by the rest on Wednesday online. I was so annoyed about the constant IT problems (I always had problems with speed and login with NR although I have broadband) that I closed the account.

I am personally concerned that having the ex-NR cash sitting in Irish clearing banks ain't necessarily very clever given their exposure to overpriced Irish property and the lack of clarity about who owns what property debt at the moment.

I wonder if MichaelDes or anyone else has any views for us on where might be better to park ex-NR cash? I see that someone suggested An Post for the very nervous...

I have opened a Rabobank account but I presume it will take a few days to process.

All the best

Imogen
 
Folks,
I've noticed that Firefox no longer works. The

"If you are already a Demand Online customer, you can view your account by clicking here." link only works with IE.

But that only gets you to the "Try again later" page...

I must say in all this the one thing that amused me, despite my worries about my life savings, was the person who suggested withdrawing all your money on deposit and then buying shares in NR... Priceless!
 
Godfather said:
Guys, since 14:00 today I see this message:


Important customer notice
Unfortunately, the system is currently very busy.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and ask that you try again later.
Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Close this window

Do you think they "closed" the internet logging in at least until monday?:confused: :confused: :confused:
Click to expand...

Read my prev post just above yours - the answer is no - I've been in there twice today - I can take a number of retries....
 
I'm guessing they're filtering connections as of this afternoon using some kind of a modulo so only one in every hundred will get to actually connect... so try try try again
 
gearoid said:
I'm guessing they're filtering connections as of this afternoon using some kind of a modulo so only one in every hundred will get to actually connect... so try try try again
Click to expand...

Thank you gearoid, I tried 30 times in a row with no positive outcome... I'll keep pushing... Now I want to take out all the money and leave there 5 Euros:confused:...
 
I tried a few times (less than 10) just now and eventually got in even though the system is slower than normal (although the login itself is only slightly slower than its normaly slow pace!).
 
Godfather said:
Thank you gearoid, I tried 30 times in a row with no positive outcome... I'll keep pushing... Now I want to take out all the money and leave there 5 Euros:confused:...
Click to expand...

You miss the "I'm guessing" part but the link to the page that says come back later is so quick it suggests there's some kind of information on the previous page that indicates you're already not going to get in.... As some people are getting in it looks like they're using some kind of mechanism to filter. It could be a modulo on a counter, but it could be based on IP address or whatever so you may be unlucky. It depends on what they're using to filter. I'd suspect mod(conection, 100) = 1, allowing connection 1, 101, 201 etc. or something similar as it would be so fast to implement. They've programmers working in a panic because they've only tested their changes in Internet Explorer. Most techies are likely to be using another browser. If the filter is more sophisticated it could be based on some other criteria so don't come back and say I tried 500 times Gearoid :-). GOOD LUCK!!
 
Gearoid, thank you so much. I installed mozilla firefox and after clicking about 10 times I managed to log in and close my account. I also saved the screenshots and (of course) the reference number. THANK YOU V. MUCH!:)

I wish all a good night!
 
Godfather said:
Gearoid, thank you so much. I installed mozilla firefox and after clicking about 10 times I managed to log in and close my account. I also saved the screenshots and (of course) the reference number. THANK YOU V. MUCH!:)

I wish all a good night!
Click to expand...

I didn't recommend Firefox to be honest :-). I was sure it didn't work, but they're filtering out connections so congratulations on your perseverence!

By the way, the heroes of the hour for me are Mr Darling and big Gordon! Otherwise my life savings would be gone...

This has been a very sobering financial education!
 
I had to laugh when I saw this on the BBC:
"To be absolutely clear, if we believed that Northern Rock was not solvent, we would not have allowed it to remain open for business," FSA chairman Callum McCarthy said.
So, if they had believed it was not solvent, they would have closed it down last week without warning and we'd have lost everything above the deposit protection? And had the rest tied up for years in the insolvency courts? And this is supposed to inspire us with confidence?

So what happens if they do think it is insolvent at some point in the future? Do they give us two days warning to get our money out, first come first served? What a load of monkeys.
 
gearoid said:
I didn't recommend Firefox to be honest :-). I was sure it didn't work, but they're filtering out connections so congratulations on your perseverence!

By the way, the heroes of the hour for me are Mr Darling and big Gordon! Otherwise my life savings would be gone...

This has been a very sobering financial education!
Click to expand...


I've been trying to get access to my parents' life savings account since last night with no success. After reading the note about installing Mozilla Firefox I installed it immediately and hey presto i got into their account within 2 minutes and managed to transfer their savings to their bricks and morter bank account. As this is the weekend no transfer will take place until Monday and it will take 3 days to see if the cash turns up in the nominated transferee account. Anyway I phoned the folks and they're sleeping easier tonight. Thanks so much for the tip.
 
Got onto my account earlier and my thursday morning transaction showing as pending.Did another transaction to close the account having originally left 10k in account.Hopefully both will go through on Monday.Then tried to log on again to sort my buddys account while he's on hols and system seems to be jammed up again.Seems like everybody logging on again and system cant cope.Looks like I'll have a long night
 
just got in after repeated attempts tonight, Showing "electronic payment sent to your bank" yippee!! although it gives the date as the 14th which is the date I requested it. money is now floating in cyberspace, should be in the bank on Monday. At least something is happening.
 
I Dont Know If Anyone Is Reading This, This Late, But I Have Just Got On And Transfered Funds. This Might Seem Fair Enough If It Were Not For The Fact That I Have Been Trying To Log On From My Home Using Broadband And Getting Nowhere.
I Am On My Boat On The Shannon And Managed To Log On Using Gprs Mobile On My Laptop And Done The Transaction. Whats More Is Afer Logging Out I Tried And Succeeded To Log Back On Again!

I Suggest To Try Now! Or Try Using A Slower System Like Gprs As Maybe Broadband Is Just Hopping Off It.

I Am In Disbelief And Am Going To Have A Beer Now!
 
Managed to get on also after numerous attempts. Shut down my buddy's account and also my dads with a transfer to close.Figure its better to close the account given whats happening as otherwise I'll be waiting till January for my interest, assuming I get my money next week.Feel sorry for NR and its staff.It did a great job, albeit with a crap website.Heres hoping we wont be talking about some other bank next!:confused: I'm off for a beer now as well.If anyone is still up and cant get through keep trying and you will get through eventually.It sounds like the site has some sort of limit on the no of users at any one time but you will get through.
 
Just to test, I went back and after 8 attempts logged back in again. (I havn't closed my account (left 1K which is covered I believe))

I believe that either, NR have not allowed people on the site and are doing so in 'windows' provided by them.

or

that because GPRS is much slower it not rejected as quickly. I am not a computer buff so that might sound silly to some, but I tore the behind out of my broadband trying to get on for hours and am still in disbelief that I got on with a mobile (GPRS not 3G) card.
 
4 a.m. and still getting the system is very busy message. Can't actually believe the system is busy at this time of day so the question of whats going on must be raised.



Important customer notice
Unfortunately, the system is currently very busy.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and ask that you try again later.
Thank you for your patience in this matter.

EDIT: After trying about 20 times finally got in. MY withdrawal is 'pending'. Now just a matter of whether it shows up in account on thursday/friday!
 
Jethro Tull said:
4 a.m. and still getting the system is very busy message. Can't actually believe the system is busy at this time of day so the question of whats going on must be raised.
Click to expand...

People probably heard that others were managing to get in at around 4 am so they're trying that too.

I wonder how much the desperate performance of the web site has contributed to the panic. Personally I suspect the main blame lies with it rather than it being a purely "media generated frenzy" (90% of frenzies are now media generated :) ).

If this episode makes other banks devote the resources necessary to improving their on-line systems something good might come out of it. This is just the sort of shock that might have them all running around trying to ensure the same couldn't happen to them.

As geroid said they also seem to have made some crude attempts to better regulate the flow of users through the authentication servers as a small fraction of users are now reporting getting through even as the system remains under load. I'm imaging people watching screens and "swivel chairing" to retype the on-line requests coming in :D. It seems to handle a small enough number of simultaneous users for that to be a realistic possibility.
 
Has anyone just left their money where it is, having faith that their deposits are safe and the Bank of England is there as a back-up if all else fails?

Having scanned through all of the posts there doesn't seem to be a single post indicating the above - people even sitting up all night to get their money out! It's also interesting to see how many infrequent posters and even first time posters have contributed to this melee.

Would be very interested to hear from anyone with more than the £31,700 stg who has not attempted to withdraw their money. Perhaps we all (including me) have just got a herd-mentality.
 
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