Major Four Day System Outage . . . | Oaken Financial | Discussion forum

A long weekend is a good time to do a major upgrade.

Four calendar days to do the work and deal with any issues. But, only one business day in the period. Better than what Royal Bank did some years ago.

Back then, Royal Bank did an upgrade early in the week and something went seriously wrong. It brought down their internal banking system and their part of the Payments Canada clearing system, for days, all business days!

There was an email they sent about this a while back. It is to implement these changes below:

Dear Oaken customer,

At Oaken, we are committed to providing our valued customers with the best possible experience. In support of this effort, we are making enhancements to our internal systems designed to improve your experience working with us.

To prepare for these enhancements, our systems including Oaken Digital (browser and app) will be unavailable from Thursday, June 30 at 6:00pm EST to Tuesday, July 5 at 7:00am EST. However, we have extended our Contact Centre hours to better serve you during this period.

Below you will find a list of all the new enhancements taking effect on July 5, 2022.

Summary of enhancements:

1. GIC account numbering format
Our new GIC account numbering format will be changing from 18 digits (numeric and alpha) to 7 digits (numeric only). Starting July 5, new investments (including renewals) will have the new account numbering format. Account numbers for existing investments will be changed upon renewal.

2. Minimum RIF payments
Currently, to fulfill your RIF minimum payment requirement, we first withdraw the accrued interest and then the principal (if needed) from the GIC(s) held within the plan. Starting July 5, the RIF minimum payment will be withdrawn from the funds available within the GIC(s). If there are multiple GICs within your plan, funds will be withdrawn in the following order:

The GIC with the lowest interest rate.
If the interest rate is the same between 2 or more GICs, funds will be withdrawn first from the GIC with the shortest term.
If the interest rate is the same between 2 or more GICs, and 2 or more GICs also have the same term, funds will be withdrawn first from the GIC with the lower account number. Note: Given the new account numbering format (7-digit), the payment will be withdrawn from the old format (18-digit) first.
Please note that RIF payment calculations will remain the same.

3. Registered plan (TFSA, RSP, RIF) designations
Starting July 5, designations for registered plans will be changing from maintaining the designations at the plan level to the GIC level. Additionally, you will be able to assign the percentage allocation for each beneficiary(ies). Existing designations currently on file will be automatically assigned evenly to each GIC. After July 5, for any changes that you would like to make to your designations, please send us a signed letter of instruction.

Contact Centre service hours from July 1 to July 4:

Friday, July 1: 9am-5pm EST
Saturday, July 2: 9am-5pm EST
Sunday, July 3: 9am-5pm EST
Monday, July 4: 8am-8pm EST
If you have any questions, please contact us at 1-855-OAKEN-22 (625-3622) or by sending an email to service@oaken.com. Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

The Oaken Financial team