BUFFALO, NY - First Niagara customer accounts are now in the process of being switched over to KeyBank. The process began Friday afternoon, and will continue through the holiday weekend and should be finished on Tuesday. But, there are still a lot of questions that people have about the switch-over.
The most common question 2 On Your Side got on Twitter was whether First Niagara credit and debit cards, can be used during the changeover. Bridget tweeting -- Will we still be able to use our First Niagara credit/debit cards until we get a new one?
Answer.
"Credit cards, debit cards all remain intact from First Niagara, KeyBank will replace the First Niagara credit and debit cards when they expire down the road with KeyBank credit and debit cards," said Gary Quenneville, KeyBank's regional executive in upstate New York.
The same thing goes for First Niagara checks, they can still be used. Account balances will continue to be updated. New KeyBank customers can still use their First Niagara credit and debit cards at ATMs -- using their same PIN. And, they can make withdrawals, but not deposits.
Sophie wants to know -- which website do we go to for online banking? Will our username and password be the same?
"Online banking generally for First Niagara stays intact until 6 o'clock this evening that will be out of service over the weekend and will be brought up Tuesday morning," Quenneville said," no username and password changes."
New Keybank customers will start going to Key.com for online banking. And Brandon asks, Why did my bank transfer to Northwest and not KeyBank?
"It's really driven by their checking account, so wherever that checking account is generally based, where it was created, yeah that's right," Quenneville said.
KeyBank says about one million First Niagara customers are being switched to Key. As of 3 p.m. Friday, 16 First Niagara branches in WNY were closed permanently. 18 First Niagara banks will get new signage this weekend and open as KeyBank Tuesday.
REPORTER: Are you guys foreseeing any issues whatsoever when it comes to the technical transformation of everything and how all this information is carried over?
"We've done a lot of system testing," he said, "we expect to have a good weekend."