EFT failed again

Netherlands, Postbank

[arrowman]

My EFT failed for the second time. I double and triple checked my account name, number and city and they all seem fine.

Netherlands, Postbank, business account. Is it just me?

Back to cheques again :-(

[Marketing Guy]

In the UK at least, account numbers need to be 8 digits, but not all are 8 digits, so you need to add some zeros.

So if your account number is 1234, then you would need to enter into the EFT page as 00001234.

Could this be the problem?

MG

[arrowman]

Thanks, but no, my account number starts with a non-zero digit and has all zeven digits that postbank accounts tend to have. Other banks in this country have 10 digits though, perhaps that has something to do with it.

I find it hard to believe that all those interconnected billion dollar banks would be unable to left-fill an account number with zeroes. I did that as the first exercise in my first year's cobol course 20 years ago :-)

[Marketing Guy]

There's your problem - banks tend to be more than 20 years behind the rest of us! ;)

Find out from your bank what the local standard is. UK is 8, but if you have some 10 digit numbers in your country then try adding the other 3.

My first month of EFT failed over this too.

MG

[joeking]

All banks should now be using IBAN numbers for international transfers - that should solve any problems regarding how many digits accounts have, etc.,

Google specifically states no IBAN numbers - only local numbers. With IBAN numbers their failure rate would drop to near zero.

[lammert]

Hello arrowman,

I have exactly the same situation as you: Postbank Netherlands, 7 digits business account, but my money is transfered without problems.

You have to check if the name of your bank account is exactly the same as the name entered in your AdSense account. The same goes for the address. If the AdSense information matches your bank account information you should contact Google. Their financial department has probably more information why the transfer failed.

FYI: I have entered the 7 digits number without leading zero's and use EURO as valuta.

[RonPK]

Same here, arrowman. Glad to hear I'm still not alone. Deja vu [webmasterworld.com]: same bank, same country, same type of account, 7 digits here too (the bank account, that is, not the amount). I've also checked everything there is to check: number, place of residence, name of account holder.

I'm a bit unhappy (to say the least) that I'll again have to wait another month before I get my money. Per Adsense TOS we're not allowed to say anything negative about Google, so let's blame the bank.

[jatar_k]

for NL

account numbers are from 7 to 10 digits all numeric
when sending these account numbers they need to be zero padded up to 10 digits

if G doesn't add the padding it won't work when sent through ACH

so add your zeros at the front up to 10 digits and it should work

[arrowman]

If the AdSense information matches your bank account information

It does. I quattrochecked. I'll pentacheck when I try EFT again in two months.

you should contact Google.

I try not to contact them too much, since they must be drowning in e-mails already.

Their financial department has probably more information why the transfer failed.

I'm a little bit disappointed they send only a boilerplate e-mail, no information about the reason of the failure.

Well, it's still in beta. Perhaps the next version will be better ...

[Rodney]

I try not to contact them too much, since they must be drowning in e-mails already.

I know what you mean by this, but hey...when it comes to payments to your bank account, I think that warrants as many emails as necessary to get the situation solved :)

[arrowman]

when it comes to payments to your bank account, I think that warrants as many emails as necessary to get the situation solved :)

Yeah, but I'll just get the same boilerplate as two months ago, which says they're sorry, it's beta and my payment will be added to next months (which they did last time).

[MichaelCrawford]

You know, in another thread I complained how unhappy I was with DHL's slow service, considering that Google is obviously "earning" a tidy profit on my $30 courier fee, and how we wouldn't have these problems with FedEx.

And I was quick to point out that I didn't trust the EFT precisely because, not only has Google stated plainly that it's been beta for several months now but several people post with each round of payments that their EFT failed.

And yet, people have assured me that I would do better to use EFT, because I would receive it sooner than I would my courier check, and despite the fact that it's beta, it's more reliable than courier service. This despite the fact that with a tracking number, if a check goes missing, most likely I won't need to wait a month for google to reissue it, but get DHL to go find it.

Now, I've never been happy with how long my checks take to arrive, but I've been in the program for almost a year now, and I have yet to simply not get my check.

Even when the EFT goes into production status, I'm still going to wait until a few months have gone by, to watch how many EFT failures are reported at webmasterworld.

The reason I complain how long the courier check takes is because I need the money to feed myself and pay rent. Imagine my dismay if my EFT failed and I had to wait a month between meals.

One thing I really have a hard time understanding is how google thinks they can get away with waiting a month to reissue a payment. I find such a lack of consideration for their publishers simply astounding. Maybe some effort should be made to get wall street investors to understand the threat this presents to google's long-term profitability, because it would be very simply for another ad program to steal away adsense publishers, simply by committing to reissue failed payments immediately.

I have been a consultant for many years, and if any of my clients had ever made me wait a month because they couldn't get it togethet to make sure that I got paid, then I simply wouldn't have tolerated it. I would have seized anything of theirs that I possessed, refused to deliver source code, faxed a demand for payment to their headquarters, and began proceeding with a collection agency. The money I need to provide for myself and my wife is simply to important to be trifled with in such an arrogant way.

[MichaelCrawford]

[qoute]You have to check if the name of your bank account is exactly the same as the name entered in your AdSense account.[/quote]

Is missing an "Inc." likely to be a problem?

The name on my business account is "EXAMPLE INC". The name on my AdSense account is just "EXAMPLE".

Unless I can get some kind of definite commitment from both my bank and from adsense support that that won't cause a problem, I won't be willing ever to use EFT until I can get adsense support to change the payee on my account.

I have no problem depositing checks made out to EXAMPLE.

[arrowman]

The reason I complain how long the courier check takes is because I need the money to feed myself and pay rent.

I'm drinking a beer from april 2004's cheque right now. You have to be careful what you eat though, after keeping it in the fridge for that long :-)

Is missing an "Inc." likely to be a problem?

Not in my case, no. Believe me, I've done thousands of EFT's to and from my account in this country and other EU countries and it's never been a problem.

[Rodney]

Unless I can get some kind of definite commitment from both my bank and from adsense support that that won't cause a problem, I won't be willing ever to use EFT until I can get adsense support to change the payee on my account.

Hey, it's your loss :)

There are many many publishers reporting easy and smooth EFT payments (how come you never post in those threads...only the ones with problems)

[guoqi]

>> Per Adsense TOS we're not allowed to say anything negative about Google, so let's blame the bank.

Very nice sentence!

Same problem here, Netherlands, Postbank, 7 digit bank account! I check over 10 times, I can swear that my bank account is correct, payee name is exactly same as what appear on my banking software, city on my account is the same.

Adsense ask me to contact my bank, my bank ask me to contact Adsense.

I will try to make it 10 digits now, let's hope that next time, money will come!

But why it is 10 digits? I though it is 9 digits? a bank account normally is 9 digits in Holland?

[RonPK]

I also contacted the Postbank, to no avail. They can't tell what the problem was.

The bank account Google uses (thx Lammert) is a Citibank account in the Netherlands. So we're talking about a simple national payment. I see no need to make things complicated by using 10 digits.

[guoqi]

I am still thinking about this problem! What actions does your guys take already? I have increased bank account to 10 digits.

[arrowman]

I'm going back to cheque this month guoqi. Perhaps I'll try EFT again next month.

[AdSenseAdvisor]

Hi guys –

As most of you know, EFT is still in beta so bugs may surface from time to time. I’ve passed this thread along to the appropriate team at Google, who will be interested in your feedback.

In the meantime, if your EFT payment is not successful, you might also want to see the following AdSense support topic:

[google.com ]

-ASA

[RonPK]

Thanks for your feedback, ASA.

FYI: my account still does not say 'payment cancelled'. That part of the system seems to think all is well, even though a different part sent me an email stating that EFT failed.

[James]

Good morning ASA

What I cannot understand is why Google is having problems with EFT. From what I can work out, all they are doing is establishing bank accounts in various countries, and instructing those banks from time to time to make mass payments to different people. This is a normal every day Banking activity, and should not be causing problems.

I know Google have many payments each month, but with the financial and other resources at Googles disposal, it should not be rocket science to work with a Bank to generate electronic payments. If we could use IBAN addresses which includes the account number of the recipient, it would solve virtually all the problems.

Could you kindly comment on this aspect of the business please?

Thank You

[guoqi]

>> I'm going back to cheque this month guoqi. Perhaps I'll try EFT again next month.

Ok, then I will do the same, untill EFT take out "beta".

[arrowman]

Thanks ASA. What we'd need to know is the actual reason for the failure. Google just tells us to doublecheck our information, re-enter it and/or contact the bank. The bank tells us to contact Google. Nobody seems to be investigating the cause of the problem.

RonPK, "payment cancelled" (or failed) appeared today in my account.