Bill Pay down this Sunday morning

Just a quick heads-up: our Bill Pay services will be down Sunday, November 2, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. local, Eastern time.

Bill Pay will be unavailable during those hours, so all your super-early-morning bill payers will have to hold out for just a bit. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Have a great Halloween weekend everyone.

Keeping you informed when our system is down.

Sometime on Sunday, after we installed an update to our account management system, we crashed.

Members first noticed it on Sunday when they tried logging in to A1@home and Bill Pay; they got a message saying “try again later.” Later came and went, and by Monday our system was still down. It wasn’t until Tuesday that we got everything up and running again.

What a hassle. Members were limited to $100 withdrawals, we couldn’t check balances, and home banking was inoperable. It only happens once in a while (the last system crash was almost two years ago), but when it does happen it’s a pain.

We want to keep you informed of events like this. It may not help you see how much money is in your checking account, but it can help keep you informed of updates and news – like when the system comes back online.

To do this, we created a graphic to post on the A1@home login screen. It’s simple, but at least it lessens the surprise when home banking tells you “try again later.”

Also, we’re going to use this blog as an information tool. When the system goes down, we’ll post a graphic (right) on our homepage that leads you to a status blog post that we can update everytime something changes.

As always, you can call our Home Office to get system status updates, but sometimes our phone line gets clogged. With our online tools, you can find out for yourself.

We hate system crashes as much as you do. Sometimes, when we update the system, it doesn’t play nice, and Sunday’s crash won’t be the only time this happens. But to keep things sane, and to keep you informed, we hope to put in place a few tools to help communicate what’s going on.

Sorry for the hassle earlier this week.

Update: Bill Pay on the iPhone

After some experimentation, I found out that our online banking service, A1@home, works just fine in the iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser, but I wondered how Bill Pay would work.

It turns out it works just fine (see above). You can zoom in to input your bill pay amounts, and while it lacks the fancy features like pop-up calendars, Bill Pay works like a charm.

So there you have it. Pay your bills anywhere you have a cell connection with American 1’s online Bill Pay and your iPhone.

American 1 available on the iPhone

If you were one of the brave folks who ventured out Friday to grab a new iPhone 3G – you survived the crowd, the lines, the servers crashing – you may wonder whether your American 1 A1@home online banking services are available through the phone’s internet browser, Safari.

Rest assured: accessing A1@home is easier than activating your phone was.

I pulled up our homepage and placed it as a bookmark on one of my home screens. Logging into A1@home works just like it does on your computer, and you’re able to view your accounts and balances.

We don’t have the fancy-schmancy mobile banking platforms some bigger banks do (must be all those fees they charge), but knowing you have access to your online banking anywhere you go is a good feeling. I still have to try out Bill Pay, but I’ll let you know as soon as I test it.

Bill Pay down on these dates.

Just a heads up: our Bill Pay service will be down from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. the following dates:

• April 27, 2008
• May 11, 2008
• June 8, 2008
• August 10, 2008
• September 7, 2008
• October 12, 2008
• November 2, 2008

So if you plan on doing any late-night bill paying, don’t try it on the above dates.

Sorry for any inconvenience!