Auckland Council rates bank account number change

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Auckland Council rates bank account number change

Jeeves

301 posts

Ultimate Geek

#199223 9-Aug-2016 10:41

So we got the usual rates bill last week, business as usual.

The wifey did the usual thing and paid manually by selecting the saved payee in our Kiwibank account (The payee was one setup by kiwibank, not by us. Ie: When you search for bill payees...it's the one that came up for Auckland Rodney, as we're in the Rodney area).

She noticed that our account reference number had changed, so changed that and then made the payment.

A little suspicious, she checked other details. And lo and behold, Auckland Council have changed the bank account number as well! So she just sent almost $500 into the wrong account.

Rung the council - they confirmed the old account had been closed, and that our payment will bounce.

That was on Friday - it's now Tuesday and the money has not returned. I'm gearing myself up for some bullsh*t long winded fight with the council now.

So, with such a major change, you think they would have made a big song and dance about this to make sure everyone was aware of this, right?

Nop. Not a word. Not a bean. Nothing.

And to verify - the cached version of the council info page that has the rates bank account numbers had the old number at least up until the 7th July when the page was cached. It has now changed with the new bank account number.

It'll be interesting to see how many thousands of people will get a surprise "We have not received your payment" letter in a few months....

SaltyNZ

8218 posts

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2degrees

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#1606820 9-Aug-2016 10:46

*ARGH*

Cheers for the heads-up - also a Rodney rate payer, had scheduled all four installments already. Will fix that when I get home.

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Jeeves

301 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1606822 9-Aug-2016 10:51

Panic over, Just got off the phone with them and this time they confirmed that they did receive the payment after all. I guess the last CSR I spoke to didn't know what was going on or what system to look into.

Will be sure to make sure the bank account is correct next time round!

reven

3743 posts

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#1606823 9-Aug-2016 10:52

thanks for the heads up, going to pay them on Friday.

thestokes

39 posts

Geek

#1606890 9-Aug-2016 11:58

All the banks should have changed the pre-assigned payee account numbers to the new one. So if you have an old bill payment and you selected Auckland, Rodney, Papakura etc. you be should be fine. Also if you have an automatic payment these should also automatically change across. There is a manual bank by bank process for getting this done. If you have manually entered the account number for a bill payment there is no process (i.e. typed in the old account number when loading a bill payment in internet banking) then this will need to be changed by you.

However large institutions change bank account numbers all the time. The old accounts are usually left open for some time and they then target those whom are "manually" paying into the old account number rather than spam everybody. Even then the accounts themselves can remain open for some years.

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#1606964 9-Aug-2016 13:24

thestokes:

All the banks should have changed the pre-assigned payee account numbers to the new one. So if you have an old bill payment and you selected Auckland, Rodney, Papakura etc. you be should be fine. Also if you have an automatic payment these should also automatically change across. There is a manual bank by bank process for getting this done. If you have manually entered the account number for a bill payment there is no process (i.e. typed in the old account number when loading a bill payment in internet banking) then this will need to be changed by you.

However large institutions change bank account numbers all the time. The old accounts are usually left open for some time and they then target those whom are "manually" paying into the old account number rather than spam everybody. Even then the accounts themselves can remain open for some years.

It is ok for bigger businesses....but, smaller ones are an issue when they change account numbers.

I've complained to ASB a couple of years ago about their payment to a pre-setup payee.

The confirmation screen only shows the payee name, and not the payee account number -- this is bad if the account number has changed.

I asked ASB for the smallest and most minor of changes, to simply display the payee account number on the confirmation screen so I can quickly double check it is OK if i suspect changes have been made.

They said they will look into it, but did nothing.

thestokes

39 posts

Geek

#1607183 9-Aug-2016 19:02

There is some fear of privacy and not displaying account numbers. For instance some companies might only want bill payments going into account 00 automatic payments in account 01 and direct debits in account 03. If the banks published the bill payment account numbers without permission they could be in for unhappy corporate customers... Personally I think the whole thing is broken needs to be centralised and published as I might or might not have proposed circa 4 or so years ago.

SaltyNZ

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2degrees

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#1607186 9-Aug-2016 19:08

thestokes: There is some fear of privacy and not displaying account numbers. For instance some companies might only want bill payments going into account 00 automatic payments in account 01 and direct debits in account 03. If the banks published the bill payment account numbers without permission they could be in for unhappy corporate customers... Personally I think the whole thing is broken needs to be centralised and published as I might or might not have proposed circa 4 or so years ago.

And furthermore, bank account numbers should be portable, just like telephone numbers. As I also may have proposed during the last request for public comment on the governments digital strategy.

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Kyanar

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#1607242 9-Aug-2016 20:29

SaltyNZ:

thestokes: There is some fear of privacy and not displaying account numbers. For instance some companies might only want bill payments going into account 00 automatic payments in account 01 and direct debits in account 03. If the banks published the bill payment account numbers without permission they could be in for unhappy corporate customers... Personally I think the whole thing is broken needs to be centralised and published as I might or might not have proposed circa 4 or so years ago.

And furthermore, bank account numbers should be portable, just like telephone numbers. As I also may have proposed during the last request for public comment on the governments digital strategy.

That's next to impossible to do, considering the banking core systems make Telco systems look like Solitaire by comparison. Not to mention that you wouldn't be able to port the first six characters anyway as they're the routing number and routing numbers are integral to the global banking system - no country in the world allows you to take your account number with you, and there's a reason for that.

richms

28168 posts

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#1607244 9-Aug-2016 20:30

They just need a DNS for bank account numbers.

Richard rich.ms

tardtasticx

3075 posts

Uber Geek

#1607269 9-Aug-2016 21:00

Kyanar:

SaltyNZ:

thestokes: There is some fear of privacy and not displaying account numbers. For instance some companies might only want bill payments going into account 00 automatic payments in account 01 and direct debits in account 03. If the banks published the bill payment account numbers without permission they could be in for unhappy corporate customers... Personally I think the whole thing is broken needs to be centralised and published as I might or might not have proposed circa 4 or so years ago.

And furthermore, bank account numbers should be portable, just like telephone numbers. As I also may have proposed during the last request for public comment on the governments digital strategy.

That's next to impossible to do, considering the banking core systems make Telco systems look like Solitaire by comparison. Not to mention that you wouldn't be able to port the first six characters anyway as they're the routing number and routing numbers are integral to the global banking system - no country in the world allows you to take your account number with you, and there's a reason for that.

And look how awesome porting telephone numbers works. If you port your number some international texts just vanish into thin air because they were directed to the wrong network based on the numbers prefix. If something as simple as an SMS can't make it I doubt the banks would be keen to try the same with millions of dollars each day.

openmedia

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#1609829 10-Aug-2016 20:30

Noticed that ASB won't allow me to enter the new Rates Account / Customer number as it is too long for their data validation.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#1609862 10-Aug-2016 21:56

openmedia:

Noticed that ASB won't allow me to enter the new Rates Account / Customer number as it is too long for their data validation.

Yeah, I had exactly the same problem with Waitakere City rates (but Papakura was OK with ASB). Lucky I noticed the ref number had changed otherwise could be having the same problem as the OP.

Rang the council to suggest they might want to fix it, but the script was to tell the customer to contact their bank to sort it out.

I ended up creating a manual payment, using the new account details to the bill.

Seems like the council doesn't want our money any more. :-)

openmedia

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#1610108 11-Aug-2016 14:05

ASB won't accept the longer number as it doesn't match the field length supplied by Auckland Council.

Auckland Council told me to talk to my bank

Rinse and repeat.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.