While PTSB says that it has resolved a payments issue for the “vast majority” of affected customers that saw them go without their wages in recent days, the bank’s social media posts are flooded with people insisting it’s the opposite as they continue to complain about the days-late payments – even as their outgoings continue to be processed.
After apologising on Friday to customers complaining about the fact that their wages and pension payments were not showing up in their accounts, the bank posted an updated statement Sunday morning to say that it has “resolved the payments issue reported on Friday” and that the “vast majority of customers have now received their payments”.
The technical issue was experienced by a third-party payments provider, with “a number of banks in countries in Europe” similarly impacted, according to PTSB.
It is understood that the issue relates to SEPA payments. SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area, and refers to payments sent through that scheme, which was created to process and simplify euro payments across the EU.
The last Friday of the month is payday for many people across the country, with last Friday in particular a shopping highlight of the year – Black Friday.
However, despite the bank’s assurance that all incoming payments due to PTSB accounts have been received, with a small number of delayed payments expected to be received by Monday morning at the latest, customers continue to complain about the issue and PTSB’s handling of it.
“It’s evident that the announcement of the issue being resolved was primarily made for media benefit, as the issue has not truly been resolved for myself and many others,” one user wrote this morning under PTSB’s latest update.
“The ongoing lack of communication regarding the current situation is extremely disappointing and frustrating. The silence and absence of clear updates are unacceptable, and it only adds to the confusion and dissatisfaction.”
“03:20am Monday 2nd December. Still no wages into my account but my Mortgage payment has been ‘taken’ out from my current account. Thanks for making me worry about my home,” wrote another user on X, who later added in an update, “08:25 2nd December and still no wages. What happened to all will be sorted for Monday morning?”
Daniel Lane, a dissatisfied PTSB customer affected by the issue, told Gript that he has been awaiting his wages since Friday, and that as of Monday noon, he has yet to receive them or any substantive update from PTSB as to when the issue will be resolved for him.
“For me personally, it’s the first of the month, I’m watching the payments coming out of my account and, you know, it’s a constant worry of am I going to go overdrawn? Like, we couldn’t go out, we couldn’t indulge in the Black Friday sales on Friday or anything that’s going on at the weekend. We couldn’t really leave the house,” Mr Lane said.
Mr Lane’s experience of PTSB’s handling of the issue is prompting him to search for a banking alternative, as he says the bank appears to be more interested in putting a “PR spin” on the situation than providing accurate or helpful information.
“Trying to get onto their online chat and get a response out of them, it keeps timing out. They had additional customer support people working at the weekend and the initial number that they gave out, their main customer service number, gave an automated message saying, ‘We work from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Please call back’”.