A term deposit maturing in the weekend caused some problems for our members.
The Pearsons had a recent irritating experience with their ANZ account. A term deposit was due to be paid into their account on a Saturday, and when they checked through internet banking the funds were shown as available for transferring that same day. So they transferred the money into two other accounts.
These transactions were not processed and displayed on their online account until Monday night. So far standard practice ... banking transactions only take place on business days. But what disturbed them was that though the money had appeared in their account as available for transfer on the Saturday, the transactions had been processed in the reverse order.
The debits (their transfers) were processed before the credit (the payment of the term deposit into the account). This resulted in a negative balance and a penalty interest charge. The Pearsons contacted ANZ immediately to complain and received an apology, and a promise to reverse the charge within two business days. They were extremely annoyed because they’d complained about this practice several times before.
We contacted ANZ and it told us there was an anomaly in its system when customers had term deposits that matured on weekends. Funds are made available on Friday's overnight processing, but aren't transferred to the customer's account until Monday night's inter-bank processing. The Pearsons' problem occurs because the funds are available but haven't yet been transferred.
ANZ said it was more than happy to refund any fees or interest charged as a result of the problem. It also apologised for any inconvenience and encouraged customers who thought they may have experienced this problem to contact the bank. ANZ will change its system later in the year to stop this happening. In the meantime its staff have been instructed to avoid setting up term deposits with weekend maturity dates.
Our view
We're pleased the problem’s been sorted out and that ANZ refunds customers promptly. But we think the Pearsons shouldn’t have had to complain so often and should have been told a permanent fix was on the way before we became involved.
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This practice has been happeneing for years.
Its also another way for the banks to gain interest on overnight/weekend funds in transit.
Why does this even show as available if it hasn't been transferred? What is the point of 'available funds' if those funds are not actually available yet?
Is it any wonder that ANZ does so poorly in the Consumer banking surveys?
I chuckled reading this as I had been on the phone to the ANZ today about the same thing, a penalty interest charge after I transferred the interest payment when it showed as available.
Note this was an interest installment, not maturation so it appears to affect these as well.