MY alrajhi

An interesting premise of having a purely digital banking app. I enjoyed using this app to manage my money just like any other banking app. There are occasional login issues, unfortunately. Just this morning, I could not login, it says biometric login could not be used, and to use PIN. After I entered the PIN, it says pin authentication could not be used, and to use password. After entering password, it says I’m using a new device, and have to pair to this new device or something. In fact, I’ve been using the app on the same phone for the past 3 months. And this is not the first time such login issues occurred. It’s time to park my money elsewhere.

Version 3.3.3: another failed update. I regret upgrading. Now I can’t even tap the login button. It just draws the lines of Al Rajhi logo continuously. Forced quitting the app doesn’t help, restarting the iPhone also doesn’t help. I guess I just have to remove the app and reinstall and wait for another 12 hr cooling period. This is really really bad for an app update. It makes me really wonder whether the update is thoroughly tested before release. Can someone do a proper software QC in the development team? Version 3.3.2 What is this, this latest update is even worse. The app logged me out after a while. Ok, that was understandable. But when I tried to login it said biometric available. Then it resorted to PIN login. But it also said not available. Then it resorted to password login. Then nothing happened when I tapped on Login button. What the.. is going on. What should I do now?Force quit the app doesn’t help. Last time it removed all my favorites saying that I’m not an important customer, except only if I were a business customer then only the favorites were copied. Such a double standard. I remember Al Rajhi when it first started back in 2009, asking around for customers to have a loan with the bank. I have had this account since then, had a loan and was my favorite bank. This mishap with the app must stop, now.

I’ve been using this app for more than a year now and must admit that this banking app has by far provided great competitive interest rates for a regular savings account. Granted, the app does behave a little finicky now and then but for the most part it gets the job done. However, one major pitfall with having a completely digital app is you’re only able to access, transfer and manage your funds via the app. There is no alternative website nor can you walk into any physical bank to perform transactions as an alternative. This is precisely what has happened to me. I upgraded my phone, reinstalled the app but to my dismay have not been able to log into the app for unknown reasons. I get a connectivity issue error message and when I contact customer service via telephone or via email, I don’t get a full answer or timeline other than “my issue has been escalated to IT”. It has now been 7 days since being able to log into my app and I’ve lost control over my money. I’m not saying the money has disappeared but not being able to access my money, especially funds that are under the “savings pot” is frustrating, devastating and stressful. I mean can you imagine just one day not being able to have access to your money overnight and not being given a proper solution within a reasonable time. Typically major banks resolve technical issues within 24 hours (most times even less), but now it’s been 7 days for me. My advise to everyone out there is to not park huge somes of money into an app that doesn’t have reliable technical support. You can just never be too sure that you’ll always have access to it. I am lucky that no major emergency has arisen where I’m stuck using a credit card. To the developer team, please fix ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else !