Clients of Adelaide-based company MyBudget furious over systems outage that has left them in financial limbo
Cash-strapped Australians who paid Adelaide-based company MyBudget to manage their money say they have been left in the dark about their finances.
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Cash-strapped Australians using a third-party company to manage their financial affairs have been left in the dark because of a major computer failure.
Popular money management company MyBudget has been bombarded with customer complaints after experiencing a systems outage since Saturday.
The Adelaide-based company manages the finances of more than 13,000 Australians and charges them sometimes more than $60 per week to do so.
Perth mother-of-two Melissa Langley, 41, who runs her own hairbraiding business said it had been extremely stressful as she was unable to access her MyBudget account online.
“We use MyBudget and we pay them a fee to handle our money,” she said.
“Things are out of whack for me now, I don’t know what has been paid and what hasn’t been paid, it’s super stressful.
“I’m so annoyed I just want to get out of here and manage my own money but they are a good service.”
Ms Langley said she will have to ring the firm and arrange how her bills can be manually paid.
On its website MyBudget describes itself as a “caring money management, structure and support to ensure you have enough money to pay your bills on time, have savings in the bank and live the debt-free, stress free life you desire”.
For customers who use the service it costs $1100 to set up an account and this is paid for in instalments over six months or more.
MyBudget sets up a bank account where customers can view their balance and search transactions while also seeing all their forecasted finances for the next 12 months.
Another disgruntled customer IT consultant Mark Sergeant, 42, from Melbourne, said he was “not happy” with the lack of information about the outage.
“Being in IT myself the information around the around the outage is a bit sparse,” he said.
“I can’t see anything online, I have to operate off my memory, I have no idea what should be paid when.
“The timing isn’t great and I’m sure there would be many people out there who would be extremely stressed by this.”
MyBudget founder Tammy Barton said in an issued statement the firm was “experiencing a systems outage that is affecting access to our client portal and app as well as our client messaging and payments systems”
“Currently our clients are unable to view their MyBudget accounts online and we are unable to process automatic payments on our clients’ behalf,” she said.
“We are however able to process these payments and transfers manually so we have all staff on deck taking calls to help our clients complete their transactions.”
She said when more details came to hand she would reveal them.
“We promise that we will provide you with a full explanation when we have it,” Mrs Barton said.
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“In the immediate term our tech team if focused on system restoration.”
Mrs Barton has previously been listed on the BRW Rich List and it has been reported the company turns over $34 million a year.
She said the company was speaking with creditors on behalf of clients and requesting payment extensions where necessary.
Mrs Barton said MyBudget would ensure any late fees or charges incurred at a result of the outage would be reimbursed.
Financial Counselling Australia’s chief executive officer Fiona Guthrie said the systems outage seemed to be “a very long time to have a glitch”.
“Everyone has problems with their systems but I hope people are being kept informed and they will be reimbursed if they are impacted,” she said.
“Also I hope they are not left worse off, the timing could not have been worse.”
Ms Guthrie said when it comes to managing money “sometimes you can do it yourself”.
MyBudget said they have experienced a high call volume due to the outage and said if customers call and hear an engaged signal it means the queue is at capacity.
They suggested customers call back again later.
If you have been impacted please email sophie.elsworth@news.com.au.
@sophieelsworth