SANTANDER went down this morning leaving hundreds of customers without access to online banking.
Downdetector, which shows when companies are experiencing outages, said there were 610 reported issues as of 11.04am this morning.
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70% of the issues related to customers struggling with their online banking and 27% with mobile banking.
Santander said the issues involving mobile and online banking had since been resolved.
However, the outage is still affecting internal systems at branches.
A spokesperson for the bank said the systems are currently recovering but it may take longer than usual for customers to be dealt with.
Frustrated customers took to social media following the mobile and online banking outage.
One said: “I can’t make any payments with my online/phone banking.
“Keeps saying there’s a problem and can’t complete.”
Another said: “Your online banking app is down and I can’t transfer any payments.”
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A third added: “How long will online banking be down?
“I need to make a payment.”
It’s not the first time Santander has gone down for customers.
Thousands of customers were left angry after their online banking crashed in July.
Users were unable to access their cash online during the crash.
In November last year, more than 1,000 customers could not log in to their accounts through online banking and mobile app services following an outage.
Can I claim compensation for an outage?
Banks aren’t obliged to pay out compensation to customers if there’s been an outage or if they’ve experienced technical issues.
But you might be entitled to some money back depending on how much the disruption affected you.
You’ll have to present evidence of how the outage negatively affected you, including any extra costs incurred through possible late payment fees.
You should make a note of when you were unable to access the services and the names of the people you spoke to at the company that suffered the outage.
You can find more detail about how to complain to Santander on its website.
If your bank doesn’t resolve any complaint, you can take your case up with the Financial Ombudsman Service.
It is an independent body which will resolve any issues based on what it thinks is “fair and reasonable” depending on the circumstances of the case.
The service can resolve your issue over the phone, by email or post depending on what best suits you.
In the case of an IT system outage at a bank, the FOS says any compensation you may receive will be dependent on your circumstances and whether you lost any money as a result.
If it finds the bank was at fault, you may see any fees, charges or fines reimbursed.
