'Anxious' Kiwibank customers overload banking app

Monday, 23 December 2019

Kiwibank customers needed to be patient checking their account on Monday as an overload of users slowed the app.

A swarm of workers keen to make sure they were paid before Christmas overloaded Kiwibank's app on Monday night.

The bank's media manager, Kara Tait, said the app was working 'slower' than usual due to an influx of people logging on Monday evening to check for government payments. The issue was resolved about 8.45pm, she said.

Some customers had reported being unable to log on entirely due to the high demand.

'People are anxious to get their money before Christmas so you can understand why there are so many people on at once,' Tait said.

* Sorry, Kiwibank: It's not enough to be Kiwi**

The bank, the largest of the New Zealand-owned banks, was processing payments scheduled for the next three days – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – on one day. It serves more than a million customers.

Tait said traffic was likely to have increased around 6.30pm, when payments started appearing in customer accounts.

She apologised to any customers affected. It was suggested anyone still experiencing problems try internet banking, which is working normally.

Countdown supermarket customers were also experiencing delays with their online orders on Monday.

A post on the grocery giant's Facebook page said an 'unexpected issue' with the IT system meant some orders had been delayed.

The team was 'working hard to resolve the issue', the post said.