Real Time - Real or Utopia
My loan payment happens on 1st of every month. But I get the acknowledgement as SMS by 5th. Why can't I get my notification from the loan company immediately. Four reasons mainly
- Processing is done by different systems
- These systems are not talking to each other in real time
- Consolidation is taking time
- Payment info is not available on time
Whenever I make payment via internet, I have noticed that it takes some time to reflect on the payers account. Why> I do not know. Either the bank is delaying which I think is not the case as the debit in my account reflects immediately. Sometimes the credit message may have missed the payers account , due to say power failure. Hence the message was not received. In this case the bank's system should be notified that the intended recipient did not receive the message. And their system has to keep trying to send the message. There must be alternative numbers, IP addresses etc. for a payer, so that the message is received.
Anyway, I inevitably get a call from the credit card company saying that they did not receive my payment. When I tell them that I have paid through internet banking, they ask me for the transaction number. Here comes another surprise. The payment confirmation is done normally by a third party which acts as the payment gateway. They generate a transaction number and this number I'm sure is relayed to the bank, but not to the Payer. I'm sure this is the case as they don't seem to have the transaction number.
I do avail of the ECS facilities provided by various banks. Good automation at its best. The other thing I like about banks is Mobile Alerts. Simple rule based systems. I'm awaiting the onset of agents that will do transactions on our behalf. In the future banks will not be the only money related corporations. Individuals will become banks and wealth would be digital in nature. K-bits and not money will be the new currency.
Best
Guru30
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