Girobank

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Brilliant concept
Disadvantages:	Appalling customer service, system may take duplicate payments

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

But this was probably more to do with my quickly elevating blood-pressure at the trying time I have had dealing with this company rather than any earthquakes or mind-blowing sex sessions.

SO WHAT IS IT?
It is a service operated by Girobank in association with a whole range of utility companies and local councils enabling you to pay a wide variety of bills on-line. I frequently don’t manage to get near a bank during normal (and I must say antiquated) operating hours this looked like too good an opportunity to miss. I don’t like paying too much by direct debit, although obviously things like mortgage and loan repayments are unavoidable – this system combined with my on-line banking service allows me to pay bits as and when I have a bit of spare cash – and over the year things usually level themselves out.

I originally registered for this service in May 2001 after my boyfriend proudly boasted that I could now pay my council tax on-line. The site was reached through a link on my local council website, although with a partner who works two floors up from the paying in office it may seem a bit bizarre to some, but then it meant I would be relying on anyone to pay on time.

Registration was a fairly smooth process from what I remember, requiring personal name, home address, e-mal address and telephone number. To add bill-pay facilities you will require the name of the company and your personal customer reference number. You will be issued with a user number, which I suggest you put somewhere safe, as although someone who is normally like a walking computer, this is one ID I don’t use sufficiently often enough to remember it. You will also be asked to select a password containing a combination of between 6 and 18 letters and numbers.

SO WHO CAN YOU PAY?
Well I am assuming the list is going to get longer – at present you can pay:

· Telecoms companies – well Kingston Communications and Powergen Telecoms anyway – BT already have their own integrated on-line payment system.

· Water Companies – I don’t know how many there are in the UK, but the menu contains a list of 19 including my local supplier, Dwr Cymru.

· Local Authority Business Rates – again I am not sure how many there are in the UK, but 96 authorities are listed in this section.

· Local Authority Council Tax – 126 local authorities

· Gas Companies – a mere 4 at the moment – British Gas and SWALEC are not currently represented on the site.

· Electric Companies – again currently 4 – my main local suppliers are not represented – POWERGEN are.

The other 3 suppliers for Gas and Electric appear to be Northern based.

· Financial Services – Mansfield District Council Insurance services and Prudential

· Other services – the same councils appear to have signed up for sundry payment facilities and rents, mortgages etc as have Reading Transport – although what you could possibly be paying them in this manner leaves something to the imagination – most likely a corporate service.

HOW CAN YOU PAY?
As expected you can use Visa debit and delta cards, Switch, Solo and wait for it, Visa Electron. The site has been sporting a message for the last 18 months or so that it doesn’t take credit card payments YET – but it seems in this instance YET is a very long time as they still don;t take credit cards and I will be surprised if they ever do.

Their charity site www.charitypay.co.uk however does take credit cards.

SECURITY
GiroBank BillPay claims in its FAQ to:
“....utilise advanced levels of data encryption technology to ensure that your sensitive banking details are transmitted in a secure and confidential way”. Secure they may be, beyond grabbing your money twice they most certainly are not.

LET ME EXPLAIN
I first used the service in May 2001, excited I would never have to write another cheque again. Billpay successfully took the money from my account and then reserved it again. I complained to my local council who basically advised me this was highly unlikely, but that if I did have an issue it was nothing to do with them – after finally persuading my bank to release the reserved funds on my account, I continued to use the service with little hassle up until we moved in August last year.

Moving into a new property, it took some months to resolve council tax and water issues and as a result, it has been over a year since I have had the need to use the account. Last month I duly paid my overdue council tax and once again they tried to take the money twice, vowing I would never use the service again. Well I guess again is a long time and thanks to all the travelling I have been doing recently, I suddenly realised last night that I again hadn’t paid my council tax. I tentatively (and naively having sunk two bottles of ice-cold Becks) logged in and proceeded to input all the necessary details to pay, inadvertently putting my issue number in the selected box resulting in my payment being refused. I quickly realised what I had done and proceeded to re-input all the details, all the time not realising that the drop down menu for the payee had reverted to the first on the list. The process does allow you to check the payment before final submission, but I just failed to notice the payee had changed and pressed the submit button.

Talk about major panic; I had just paid Dwr Cymru £123 that I didn’t actually owe them and still had to pay my council tax with pay-day being another week away. I contacted my bank who advised me there was nothing I could do unless Girobank could send through a fax requesting that the payment be cancelled – unfortunately, Girobank’s customer helpline is only open Monday to Friday 9am – 5.30pm.

I contacted Girobank literally first thing this morning and was advised that it was tough there was nothing they could do. I informed them that my bank said there it could be cancelled but they were adamant there wasn’t. They then called me back and confirmed that they would send a fax through.

By 4pm this afternoon, the funds on my account were still showing as reserved and therefore I contacted my bank who advised me they had definitely not received any fax. I again contacted Girobank and spoke to one of the most badly trained and unprofessional person I have ever had the displeasure to deal with who virtually called me a liar He refused to let me speak to a manager and advised me he would take my number and get one to call me back. I eventually through much irate discussion on both sides was transferred to the technical department and was told by a very nice lady that the fax had been sent, but she didn’t have the confirmation slip. I pointed out that this was either sloppy on behalf of the responsible person, or simply that it hadn’t been sent, yet she was adamant she wouldn’t resend it until she had found the sending confirmation slip – aaaagh.

This lady then advised me to contact my bank to contact them but was told this wasn’t possible either – talk about stalemate – I have probably spent the same amount again today on telephone calls as I’d overpaid in the first place. Ironically they also pointed out that I should have called them immediately the error happened – there was a deathly silence when I pointed out that I couldn’t because they were closed. – and they wonder why British companies are making the decision to transfer call centres to India at a rate faster than even I have changed jobs in the past.

I also took the opportunity to point out about the two payments they had inadvertently tried to take twice - they tried to tell me that this was because I had made the payment twice - this is physically impossible on this site - and if I somehow had managed it - why didn't it show up in the payment history table?

WHAT DID I DO?
I contacted Dwr Cymru to tell them what had happened only to discover that a bill had been despatched this week requiring £175 for the last 6 months water – so I am sure they will be well impressed with the fact that I have telepathic vision and new I was expecting a bill that was twice the level of my last one.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO ON THE SITE?
Update your personal and payment details – and view a history of all the payments made.

SUMMARY
This company has driven me to distraction and back on the few occasions I have used it. The idea is brilliant, the reality a little less so, and if you have a problem, whether it is of your making or not, don’t expect Girobank customer services to be of any help or keep any of their promises, or for them to be trained in how to deal with irate customers.

OVERALL – AT THIS POINT IN TIME – DEFINITELY NOT RECOMMENDED.

Don't know where the ratings came from below - think someone has miscontrued the service.