Bank Atlantic, a Florida based bank upgraded their system over the weekend. The result: Thousands of Bank Atlantic customers can no longer log in to their accounts.
Some "smart" IT guy figured it would be best to give everybody a new password. The new password is the customers social security number. That is really making sure security top priority. Just a little better would have been to make the password "password". Anybody who calls Bank Atlantic currently, if they can get through, gets an automatic message with this "secure" password information.
Anyhow, this "smart" system update took 2 full days and the result is that you can no longer access your Bank Atlantic bank account, unless you read the email notification that they sent out a few weeks ago. That email was explaining everything in perfect geek language.
If you have not barred your access yet, you can log in with your user name and your social security number as a password. I suggest to log in fast and change the password. A social security number can not be considered safe. Not that it is public record, but to get a persons social security number is usually not that difficult. It is scary to see how sensitive information is handled sometimes.
Bank Atlantic already issued some additional stock today in order to raise more money. Whether that is related to expected lawsuits from thousands of customers that suddenly find their accounts compromised, could not be verified.
Alan B. Levan, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "While BankAtlantic's capital levels at March 31, 2010 exceeded "well capitalized" regulatory capital thresholds, we believe it is prudent to raise additional capital at this time.
Why Bank Atlantic did not just keep the current login information could not be found. It would probably have been too easy.
Update:
The Bank Atlantic web site is probably not as sturdy as it could be. From time to time there were outages reported and the Bank Atlantic log in page did not respond or the log in page was just hanging up in the middle.
Bank Atlantic Login Not Working
So the Dawn of a New Era of Online Banking means I can't do online banking at all???
ردحذفSo I guess I am one of the lucky few (million) that have already locked myself out of my account and have spent the rest of the entire day calling every customer support number I could find just to hear a fax signal on the 1-888-7-day-bank. The number that seems to be dedicated help number for this new "brilliant" website is no help. When the call gets picked up it is soon dropped without any message coming on.
I guess since it is nearly impossible to find branches that will close as late as they used to, and even harder to find branches that still open on Sunday, they must be working really hard at being "Florida's Most Convenient Bank".
"Florida's Most Incovenient Bank",this is a disaster. Locked out of my account all day. There so-called customer service number is NO help, all calls drop out.
ردحذفBrilliant, now I can not access my account,,nor can I get thru to customer service.They left me on hold for 40 minutes,and then I received a message that they are closed. Nice going Bank Atlantic.
ردحذفI opened an account a week ago. What Bank Atlantic calls TOtally Free CHecking. Well of course it is as free as Bank Atlantic is Florida's Most COnvenient Bank. Hahahahah! I had to order checks from the bank which I have not received yet and will pay $19 for and will never use because I am closing my bank account with them today. I have lived in Canada, China, THe Czech Republic, England, Russia and Germany and never opened up a Bank Account and closed it a gain within a week... BUt then non of thoe countries have a Bank nearly so incompentant as Mr. Lavan's Bank You really are a loser and a cheat Levan.
ردحذفHere is an interesting point, not mentioned by most responders to this situation. There was a great deal of communication prior to upgrade, including emails, secure messages in online banking as well as "snail mail" sent to account holders explaining very clearly when the cutover would happen and how to log on to the newly upgraded system. I actually followed those instructions and was able to logon to OLB on Monday morning. My accounts were perfect, all my bill pays were properly converted and I have been greatly enjoying all of the new features available now. I am appreciative of not only the communication and instructions that I received and the planning that went into producing them, but I am also appreciative of the fact that I read them. Hmmm, could there be a connection between following instructions and enjoying a flawless implementation - you decide. I have to go check some balances and pay some bills now - at FLorida's most convenient bank! Oh, and one more thing - when my husband did not read the instructions and ran into some difficulty, he was thrilled with the prompt and responsive service he received and had the problem corrected quickly.
ردحذفI have not been able to access my account or reach anyone by phone at BA for two days now. We have been told that it will take up to or over 72 hours for wires to hit our account. Did you get an email or snail mail telling you that little detail? This has totally messed up my finances since we own our own business and all the money we receive and pay out is via wires so this has brought everything to a screeching halt. We cannot receive money or send out payments.
ردحذفHow does this effect people who are paid direct deposit I wonder? I am really happy for you MCB but all of us are not having it so easy and BA is in for a HUGE reckoning. There are already many lawsuits in the works.
After a trip to the bank this morning I know employees at BA are moving their accounts and they know a lot more about this than we are being told. I will be moving mine too.
Some of us followed the directions
ردحذفThe validation server is/was down
The CSR bonehead reset my password, even though I reiterated several times the validation server wasn't working
I entered all the correct info but it said it didn't match
THEN I got locked out of my account
I'll be there tomorrow
MCB,
ردحذفThis is no different than a teacher failing to teach their students. Perhaps the teacher is smart and capable, but if in the end a great many of the students fail, then it's also a failure for the teacher. BankAtlantic should own up to the fact that the implementation was flawed. I also agree with the post about using SS#'s for passwords is foolish.
Got a few problems visiting your website in Chrome on the Mac pc, but I still liked your website!
ردحذف