Updated 2/17, 3:30 p.m. to update Running Balance section.
Today, People’s United Bank unveiled its updated banking interface after shutting down for the majority of the Presidents Day weekend. I went through the registration process this morning. Here are some thoughts about what I encountered, in no particular order:
- The mix of security questions was pretty wide and some of them are answers that wouldn’t be easily found, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, some of them are answers that can be easily found. Asking for your dad’s middle name, or your astrological sign, may be easy to remember for people, but is also easily found by a criminal.
- The registration for me was smooth – I did it relatively early during the day, a time when I assumed the site would be hit hard, and I noticed no lag, no errors… it works as advertised, and registration on the new site took less than 90 seconds for me. However, others haven’t been so lucky, such as Patrice, who kindly shared the potential challenges one might face when multiple accounts are involved in the comments of a previous post. In a follow-up E-mail, Patrice also said, “They have told me that they can’t even fix anything or return any calls because the call volume is so high. They have been intentionally disconnecting callers because they can’t handle the volume.” I’ve seen this happen at other companies when the call center is overwhelmed with calls after a transition of this magnitude; be prepared to set aside some time if you need to reach People’s, at least until things settle down.
- When I completed the initial setup process, People’s sent me an E-mail alerting me to a password change. That’s a nice touch, and a good way to be aware if someone has managed to breach your account.
- The Account Activity page lists a bit more information on each line, so phone numbers for certain merchants, cut off by the old system due to length, is now fully displayed. This makes it easier to follow-up on a transaction you’re unsure about, without needing to call the bank.
- Even if People’s giveth, with access to more accounts, for instance, they also taketh – the new version doesn’t offer the running balance that existed in the old system. One reader already commented on this one of my previous posts. While the running balance wasn’t always perfect (it would sometimes be off in the overnight hours as they processed the day’s transactions), it was helpful. Now, an available balance exists, but you can’t see how it got there. In my case, I have a transaction pending that’s not listed, but it’s being factored in to the available balance. In a nutshell, it’s less transparent.
UPDATE: According to People’s FAQ, this feature will make a welcome return by Feb. 22. Nice catch by a reader of The Buzz! - People’s has a nice set of Frequently Asked Questions for those who aren’t quite sure how to use the new site and its features, posted as part of its upgrade guide. Their online documentation is pretty detailed.
I’m still getting used to the new interface, so I haven’t fully come to a conclusion about how I feel about it. It may ultimately be a wash for me, but what do you think?
I just “updated” my profile. Not happy. I agree the running balance is something I really liked in the old version. Now you can’t be sure how they have arrived at the aggregate curreent balance… does pending transactions affect the curreent balance??? Before there never was a question. Also, something I found out by accident; if you received alerts in the past, you will have to go back in, enable those alerts AND also input your email address again. I cannot imagine this was how it was supposed to go with this upgrade. The photo and phrase thing is a bit of a plus, much like Bank of America’s web portal, but People’s falls way short of thye BofA one when it comes to alerts. I was really surprised to see that you can now be notified of a deposit, BUT, you have to specify what the transaction amount is. Very strange. Who possibly knows the EXACT amount a deposit will be? Stupid function. Not that People’s will be worried, but I will probably switch banks in favor of one that has a web portal that is functional.
Comment by Bob — February 17th, 2010 @ 7:01 am
I just read on the Top 5 FAQs that running balances will be available on Monday. I pasted the answer belwo and here’s thelink: https://www.peoples.com/upgrade/faq_online.html
Can I see a running balance of my account history on the account activity page? Yes, this feature will be available by Feb 22. Until then, you can access your running balance by clicking on the “Statements” link in the main navigation bar. From there, you can access your historical statements with account transactions and balance information.
Comment by B. Kuiper — February 17th, 2010 @ 2:28 pm
Good catch! That is something I missed. Given how thorough their documentation is, it’s easy to miss things in the sheer volume of Q&A. Thanks for that – I will update my post!
Comment by Josh O'Connell — February 17th, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
I find the new People’s system to be *horrible*.
The new interface feels like it was developed back in the late 90′s.
Many of the standard reports are broken. For example, attempting to find out what bills I have paid recently yields no results.
I can’t change the answers to my security questions, or review the ones that I have answered. If this functionality is available, I can’t find it.
It no longer works with Mint.com. This is a deal breaker for me.
And finally, who’s idea was it to do a major, disruptive software update, right at the beginning of tax season? Have they lost their minds? I am very happy that I do not work at their customer service desk right now.
Comment by Sean — February 17th, 2010 @ 8:40 pm
The Mint point is a very good one, and something I forgot to mention, being a Mint user myself. I already sent in a bug report noting the broken connectivity… I’m hoping they update to bring it back soon.
Comment by Josh O'Connell — February 17th, 2010 @ 8:42 pm
Some more thoughts on this..
Logging into the new system re-routes you to the website “https://cibng.ibanking-services.com”
What is cibng? Googling this says it’s the “Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.” I’m fairly sure Peoples isn’t outsourcing it’s banking software to Nigeria, but still it would be good to know what company is hosting the new system.
Does anyone know what the “number” column is used for on the main account activity screen? For checks, it seems to correspond to check numbers, and the sorting works (sort of, it gets sorted alphanumerically rather than numerically), but there are some other random numbers associated with some, but not all, of my other transaction types. For example, some of my NYSE POS purchages are associated with the number “98″, and some of them aren’t.
Comment by Sean — February 18th, 2010 @ 1:06 pm
The domain is owned by Metavante Corporation:
http://www.metavante.com/index.htm
They are a financial services company that builds banking services. If People’s upgraded their in-store system to a Metavante product, chances are, for simplicity, they’d use a Metavante Web product too. But that’s just an educated guess based on the site’s owner.
Of course, in the seven years I’ve used People’s for checking, I recall only two distinct Web platforms, and neither were updated drastically after launch. Maybe features and enhancements will come more regularly on the new site.
Comment by Josh O'Connell — February 18th, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”
Obviously this quote is a bit over-dramatic for this situation, but change is only different for a few weeks. In no time, most of us will forget all about this change.
Some of the pluses and minuses I’ve noticed:
+ Can’t wait for the running balance again. Although, the FAQ that was linked here says February 24th, not the 22nd.
- I don’t see where I can add or remove an account from my profile. A banker at my branch said that is an upgrade that should be coming shortly, but he isn’t quite sure when.
+ I read Patrice’s comments. I too have a business account along with a few personal accounts. I was easily able to login through my business online account. I simply went to my branch and they looked up the company ID for me (I too, like Patrice, didn’t receive mine in the mail). One this the banker did show me is that you can also re-enroll a personal online account and view your personal accounts there. I’m a bit picky when it comes to keeping my personal and business checking accounts separate, so I found this feature tremendously helpful.
In response to what Sean said, I too experienced this. I couldn’t find some bill payments from a few months back. I asked the banker who assisted me about this. He told me only 45 days of history was transformed. I found this very inconvenient. As the days go forward, the amount of history kept will expand to what it used to be. He also told me if I need any information further back than the 45 days, there are over 2 years worth of statements available online. I’d call this a minus and a plus.
Lastly, I’m not quite sure why anyone calls the customer service anyway. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer to handle things in person. This oddness in me helped me out, it seems, as I was assisted by a banker at my branch in a matter of moments. They seemed busy with customers with similar issues, almost overwhelmed, but I was helped quickly and had 95% of my questions answered.
Comment by Steve — February 19th, 2010 @ 12:38 am
When I went to my branch the day they reopened, it was actually pretty quiet in there. But many times in the past when I’ve asked physical locations about their online operations, you get all sorts of “I don’t know” type answers… not necessarily referring to People’s, but in the general world. As such, many of us our groomed to assume that the physical operation doesn’t really know what the online one is doing.
To hear that People’s trained their branch employees to use the new site before customers got it is kind of refreshing. To hear that they could explain it well to customers is also excellent.
Glad to hear you’re finding things to like, Steve. As I said, there’s been pros and cons for me, but I didn’t personally find it any better or worse than before at this point. Hopefully, though, this is the start of a much more aggressive online operation.
Comment by Josh O'Connell — February 19th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm
It has been a full week since they started this upgrade and I still do not have access to my accounts.
Seems if you own a business they screwed up the transfer of information-not just for me. The branch I work with has 15 of these types of customers with this problem-I live in a tiny town so I can not imagine the full impact of this screw up.
The bank was fantastic before their merger-gee big surprise. Bigger and better has meant anything but. Now they upgrade and lose information so badly that they have to submit it all by hand because of the loss of data. I have been on the phone with these people for DAYS. Yeah, DAYS, trying to get this mess straightened out. Every day they tell you it will fixed by end of business but it is not. Tues, Wed, Thurs and now here it is late Friday afternoon and still I have no access to my accounts.
How many people do you know that can go a full week without access to their accounts? Especially business accounts? The person who put this plan of theirs together should be fired. I have bills to pay, do you think they are going to pay late fees and fix my credit if I can not get this straight? Of course not. I am screwed while they whine about “we did not know this would happen” with their obviously inept system.
I am all for change, however, this time around they blew it. Further more, at least the OLD system WORKED. I don’t need bells and whistles as much as I need access to my accounts.
Comment by Dawn — February 19th, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
Got to admit it is working for me for my accounts. I got in easily enough – and definitely like seeing all my accounts in one place. I have been paying my bills (even setup an ebill – be interesting to see how that works on the site), transferring money, and got Quicken to work with no trouble – the trick there is to make sure you disconnect each of your accounts within Quicken from People’s (takes about 10 seconds per account) and then just download like normal. Quicken prompts you to reconnect each account you download to whatever account you choose. Mint doesn’t work – but that’s Mint’s job to reconnect or whatever it is they do to People’s. I’m guessing it won’t take them long. Seems lots of folks have reported it to Mint.
I can find my bills I did within the last 45 days in my account history, and they seem to be coming in to the bill payment history going forward as I use the service – and I can find them in my online statements – so overall not a big deal. I had all my records in Quicken anyway.
Overall – I’m happy – the look of the site is kinda blah but it does everything I need and it’s got a few new features. So let’s hope they keep making it better over time!
Comment by Barry — February 20th, 2010 @ 7:04 pm
I agree with Dawn. It has been absolutely horrible if you had a business account as well. They force your personal accounts into the e-treasury. Well e-treasury asks you 3 items to login, not just username and password, so Quicken no longer works. (not to mention it took a week just to log into my account.) When I try the regular download it won’t work. I tried Quicken 2007 and Quicken 2010, because Peoples is not on the Financial Institution list! Quicken says there is nothing they can do unless Peoples gets on the updated list.
Not to mention links on the phone system and website are broken. Online customer help just takes you back to the home page. Help for the website on the phone system takes you back to the automated telephone banking system. Aaggh!
Anyone get downloads to Quicken working from the e-treasury site?
Comment by Gloria — February 28th, 2010 @ 9:03 pm
Gloria,
I’ve been using Quicken 2007 since the day after they upgraded. I’ve yet to have any issues. However, if you need some help, I got an email this morning from the customer service department that how a bunch of updated FAQ’s as well as a link to more.
https://www.peoples.com/upgrade/faq_online.html
That’s the link, in case you need it. The bullet for Quicken and a step-by-step guide is I believe the 4th one down. The email I got seems generic, as in it was sent to everyone.
And as I mentioned in my comment a few days ago, personal accounts seem to only have been defaulted to the eTreasury site. I was able to re-enroll on the personal side of the system and access my personal accounts there.
I hope this helps you a bit.
Comment by Steve — February 28th, 2010 @ 11:29 pm
How does one view his account so he can balance it???
I can find statements but not the account. I signed up for paper and online. Spent a half hour looking.
Comment by Skypilot — November 4th, 2010 @ 8:42 am