RBS sorry for second round of account problems
RBS apologises to its millions of customers after a technical problem left them unable to access accounts for the second time in nine months. But some customers continue to experience problems.
Customers began reporting problems with cash machines and cards being declined, as well as accessing their accounts online and via telephone, last night.
RBS and its subsidiaries, NatWest and the Bank of Ulster, initially issued apologies about the inconvenience on Twitter at 11.30pm.
The bank said that the problem was later resolved at around 1am.
However some customers continued to have problems accessing their accounts online on Thursday morning. Many took to Natwest’s Facebook page to leave complaints.
Nigel Sutherland wrote: “I STILL can’t get online to NatWest though. I’ve tried different browsers. I have a business to run too.”
Another customer, Adam Dodwell, said: “NWOLB (Natwest online banking) briefly worked last night but is down again this morning. Lack of comment from NW is unacceptable.”
The issues with customers accessing their accounts comes after a computer meltdown last June left millions of customers unable to withdraw cash for up to a week. Some Ulster Bank customers were affected for weeks.
An RBS and Natwest spokesperson said that problems occured betwee 9pm and 11pm on Wednesday evening, and that any customers with individual problems should get in touch with them directly.
“This problem was caused by a hardware fault and was not related to the issues we experienced last summer,” he said. “It was much easier to fix, though clearly an unacceptable failure.”
He added: “Any customer who was left out of pocket due to this outage should get in touch so we can put things right for them.”
#Natwest
Customers took to Twitter on Wednesday night to complain about being unable to access their money.
Charlie O’Brien tweeted: “Yep my card just got declined. Not able to use cash points or online banking #natwest not good at all …..”
She later added: “I had to get my info from twitter! No details anywhere else about whole system being down. Poor show.”
Stephen Hester, the chief executive of RBS, which is 80 per cent state-owned, was forced to apologise last June after millions of customers were left unable to view an up-to-date balance following a software update.
It also affected payments such as direct debits for bills and some wages were not received.
Mr Hester recently defended bankers’ bonuses, and told Channel 4 News they are not something to be ashamed of.