SANTANDER bank went down today leaving customers unable to make payments.
It wasn’t the only bank experiencing problems either, as NatWest’s app ran into its own troubles.
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Both banks have confirmed to The Sun that services are working as normal now though.
A Santander spokesperson said: “We experienced an issue with our Faster Payments this morning which is now resolved and payments are being processed.”
Santander customers had been complaining this morning of MISSING payments after transferring cash from their accounts.
It led customers of OTHER banks to report their own issues too as Santander’s outage isn’t letting them transfer money to other providers.
Meanwhile, NatWest customers struggled to get onto mobile banking with 30% of the handful of users who have reported issues today flagging the major flaw on Downdetector.
The problems moving money or checking balances initially sparked concern for Santander customers though, as there’s just one day to go before the massive bank holiday weekend hits.
“I’ve just made a sizeable bank transfer and it’s completely vanished,” one customer complained on Twitter.
Another said, “Is Santander down because I sent my bills and they’re saying not received anything.”
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The money won’t have disappeared entirely, but plenty of users complained of it being stuck in the transfer hole created by the issue.
Hundreds of users reported their concerns with the banking system this morning on complaints hub, Downdetector.
As many as 538 Santander customers faced some kind of banking headache during the peak of the provider’s outage, according to the problem logging site.
A couple hundred reports were been logged for banks such as Halifax, Lloyds and Monzo too, but only because customers couldn’t send their money from Santander to the other accounts.
The Santander issues started at around 5am today, but it looked as though problems picked up last night too.
Between 8.30pm and midnight up to almost 200 users were hit by the same troubles.
Over half of the reported problems today complained of difficulty transferring funds.
With the Jubilee Bank Holiday just hours away, customers feared they wouldn’t have access to the cash they need over the bumper four-day break.
Frustrated, more took to social media to complain of the ongoing problems.
On Twitter one said: “I can’t make payment to Santander even though money is in my account.”
“My transfer from Santander to HSBC is not going through,” said another. “And Santander declined a payment in as well.”
A third said: “My payment is not showing in my Santander account, but weirdly it has left my First Direct account.”
Meanwhile, under the details of the service failures on Downdetector, more users revealed the issues they were up against.
One said: ” My online receipt/payment process is not working,” as another revealed: “I just made a payment to my own account and the funds are not showing. This is usually instant.”
Santander responded to customers concerns, apologised for the mishap and confirmed to The un that everything was back to normal now.
Its spokesperson said: “We apologise again to all our customers who were affected this morning.
“Customers expecting a payment that still hasn’t been received, should contact the sender in the first instance.”
But it wouldn’t be the first time the bank’s customers have run into issues.
Back in November, Santander went down locking hundreds of customers out of their accounts, with just weeks to go to another major holiday too.
Christmas was just around the corner and customers struggled to access their money due to the outage.
Can you claim compensation for outages?
Unlike telecoms companies, banks don’t have a fixed compensation scheme for service disruption.
That usually means you don’t get owed any compensation for the pain of the outage, especially if it is resolved quickly.
It depends on just how much it has affected you, as to whether you may be entitled to some money back.
Nationwide, for example, gave EVERY customer hit by its major January outage £60 back.
Any complaints directed at Santander in this instance, however, can be logged on its website.
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