Kiwis rushing to check their cost of living payments causes banking outages

The first instalment of the Government's cost of living payment is hitting Kiwi's bank accounts today, however many are having problems checking to see if the money has been deposited.

With New Zealanders rushing to check their accounts this morning may have to wait a little bit longer as major New Zealand banks are down.

BNZ has had over 566 reports of outages at 11:54am and ANZ had 143 outage reports at 12:23pm.

Kiwis rushing to check their cost of living payments causes banking outages
Photo credit: BNZ
Kiwis rushing to check their cost of living payments causes banking outages
Photo credit: ANZ

A BNZ spokesperson said some customers are experiencing difficulties logging into their accounts on the mobile banking app, but internet banking is still working.

"We are working hard to get this issue fixed as soon as we can, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

According to the ANZ banking app, the outage is due to a "large number of customers" using ANZ goMoney right now.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused and please try later."

It's estimated about 2.1 million New Zealanders who earn $70,000 or less and aren't entitled to the Winter Energy Payment will receive the $350 payment which is paid in three portions of  $116.67 over three months.

Due to the large number of payments being made, IRD said it will stagger them throughout the day, however, many Kiwis have already received the payment wasting no time spending it. 

But for the Kiwis waiting to access their cost of living payment they may have to stay patient for now.