Saturday April 9, 2022 | VICTORIA, BC [Updated 5:15 pm]
by Mary P Brooke, Editor | Island Social Trends
Coast Capital Savings is upgrading their banking system for four-and-a-half days, with the goal to optimize performance. The system downtime impacts all their branches and access by customers throughout BC.
Why this upgrade?
Island Social Trends inquired as to some informative technical details of the upgrade, but that information was unavailable.
“The need to upgrade our current system to support ongoing innovation (just as you need to update your phone/devices to support additional functionality/improved tech) is the most succinct way to answer the ‘why’ behind the upgrade,” said Erin McKinley, Media Rep, Coast Capital Savings, in a reply to Island Social Trends back on March 24.
In this day and age of consumer reliance on online and digital banking, it’s no surprise that systems must be kept up to date. It remains unanswered, however, why such a lengthy blackout of key services. It’s unclear if that indicates areas whether the financial institution fell behind on current online banking performance or whether it chooses to be ahead of the pack in some ways.
Coast Capital was once of the first financial institutions to provide web-banking excellence in ways that the major banks did not, as far back as the early 2000s. For example, posting transactions in real time instead of requiring an overnight posting period.
Apology for inconvenience:
Naturally, the company apologizes on its website, for the inconvenience: “Thank you for your patience while we upgrade our banking system.”
Five days offline:
The system went offline last night Friday April 8 at 8 pm and will be active again at 8 am PDT on Wednesday April 13.
Coast Capital says this system outage is an investment in future solutions and enhancements, and they apologize for the inconvenience.
Those who bank with Coast Capital can still use their debit card for purchases, and do ATM withdrawals and deposits during the outage.
Mortgage and loan payments will transact uninterrupted during the April 8-13 period. Automatic payments (such as to ICBC) will transact as usual, but the posting date will be delayed to April 13.
People will have needed to plan ahead if they have bill payments scheduled throughout the upgrade. “This is why we have given ample notice so that we can help our members make any arrangements necessary to avoid any unnecessary impacts,” said McKinley last month.
Digital banking and Coast-by-Phone® are also currently unavailable and will be back on April 13 at 8 am PDT.
Changes not immediately apparent:
“This is an upgrade that is required for us to ensure we have a banking system that supports our continued innovation and the best member experience possible,” says McKinley.
“Although the changes will not be immediately apparent to our members in terms of the look, feel or functionality of our systems, this is a necessary upgrade to support our growth as an organization,” she told Island Social Trends.
Q & A online & by phone:
The financial institution’s Advice Centre is open 24/7 to answer questions about the outage and to cancel lost or stolen debit cards. They will not be able to access customer accounts or process banking transactions.
General inquiries can be addressed on the CoastCapitalSavings.com website or by calling 1.888.517.7000.
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