Standard Bank OTP by email problem

[Dave A]

Standard Bank is currently experiencing a "slow delivery" problem of one time passwords by email - at least that's what their internet banking support calls it. "Try again in an hour, sir."

Well actually I'd already done that

It's been fun. Each OTP expires after 15 minutes, and the first one I requested eventually arrived in my inbox after the second one, which I had given up on and gone to lunch after waiting 10 minutes. When I got back, there they were in my inbox, in the wrong order.

Aah. As I type this, yet another one has arrived, near exactly 20 minutes after the request time. Quite unusable *delete*

Oh well. Try again in an hour, I guess.

[duncan drennan]

I thought the banks had requested that everyone move their OTP from email to SMS, due to the possibility of the email being intercepted? I know that it is all still available though. How about trying to get one to your phone? (although you probably need one to set that up.....)

[Dave A]

For me the problem is when I travel. Sometimes getting an SMS is not an option. Standard Bank did, at one stage, provide for the option of a secondary notification if the primary failed - but that was discontinued. Now it's a case of commit to either SMS or email, period.

When I called their support, it was clear that setting up a change was going to take about 24 hours anyway. So quicker to hold on for the problem to clear.

BTW - I've just got the trasaction through - the delay is down to about 7 minutes.

[bullfrog]

I must say absa's OTP service has been fairly acceptable. I get the OTP via sms and normally get it instantly and the password is valid till midnight that night. The other day I changed my number and went to the bank, got it done, in and out in 20 mins. Logged into my online banking and requested a new OTP and got it a few hours later, lucky I could still use it.

It might just be a one time thing with the changing of the number. Usually before that I got the sms's instantly and the online banking notification usually got to me before I fully logged in. So I'm quite happy with absa and their OTP service and online banking so far. A note though is that they completely disabled OTP being sent to email.

I feel that they have been a bit tighter with security in this regard. If it's insecure they won't make it your decision and will just completely disable it, like the email OTP. I had to physically go into the bank, produce my ID and card to get the number changed which is a bit more hassle but I feel that there's less chance that someone will be able to get into my account and take my money with absa.

Also haven't had any hassles with their online banking facilities.

Sorry if I sound like a walking billboard for absa, but I have gotten quite satisfactory service from them this far.

[knewman]

One thing that drives me completely mad about Standard Bank's Internet Banking is that it always seems to go offline around 4am, sometimes for hours at a time.

And when the Internet Banking is off, Cellphone banking is affected too. The both give the error message "Technical error: please try again later".

I don't know how they can advertise it as a 24 hour service!

[Dave A]

It could be a daily routine that has to be run to ensure data integrity.