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RBS today admitted that it had failed to invest properly in IT systems for decades, as customers
woke up to find money had been emptied from their accounts by a
computer glitch.

Supermarket trolleys full of food were abandoned, mothers were unable
to buy milk for babies and motorists could
not purchase fuel as the error also left Britain’s shoppers high and dry last
night.

On the biggest online shopping day of the year, customers of the Royal
Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, which includes NatWest and Ulster Bank,
were left unable to use their debit or credit cards.

Problem: A computer glitch at NatWest left customers unable to use their cards or make
online purchases

Chief executive Ross McEwann insisted the bank was
now investing heavily in building IT systems that its customers ‘can rely on’, adding that he was ‘sorry for the inconvenience
we caused’.

On the first working day of the month and just three
weeks before Christmas, some customers found their wages had gone missing and they had
gone overdrawn as direct debits went out.

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The problem – which lasted for around three hours between 6.30pm and 9.30pm yesterday – also affected
use of the bank’s cash machines, smartphone apps and websites,
on ‘Cyber Monday’.

Other customers logged on to find they were overdrawn – when there should have been funds
available in their accounts, but the bank said this had only happened to a small number of people.

Shocked: RBS customer Rachael Horrocks, 24, pictured at her workplace in Berkshire, found her account value was negative today, despite
her having ‘a reasonable amount of funds in there yesterday’

Mr McEwann said: ‘Last night’s systems failure was unacceptable.

CUSTOMERS COMPLAIN AT SPEED OF RBS RESPONSE ON TWITTER

Customers complained that it took RBS and NatWest at least one hour to alert
customers to the problem via Twitter.

Once the details were made public, the banks were met with a tidal wave of frustration and
anger from people stranded without money or turned away from tills.

Many people complained direct to the Help Twitter feeds of NatWest and RBS.

Andy Neillans said: ‘Can’t believe it took so long to get an announcement out.
Looks like issues for last one hour plus, and this is the first info.’

And Samuel Cramer wrote: ‘I’m stuck – unable to either go home
or go where I’m meant to be going, so hurry up with it.
Switching banks first chance I get.’

‘Yesterday was a busy shopping day and far too many of our customers were let down,
unable to make purchases and withdraw cash. For decades, RBS
failed to invest properly in its systems.

‘We need to put our customers’ needs at the centre of all we
do. It will take time, but we are investing heavily in building IT systems our customers can rely on.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience we caused our customers.
We know we have to do better.

‘I will be outlining plans in the New Year for making
RBS the bank that our customers and the UK need it to be.
This will include an outline of where we intend to invest for the future.’

As well as anger among internet users, people complained about being caught up in long queues at supermarkets
and petrol stations as those affected struggled to find alternative payment methods.

The bank has apologised to customers across the country who were
hit by the problem. Reports of cards being declined began at 6.30pm – when many people go online to buy
groceries after work.

Not in use: A mother and baby pass an out-of-order NatWest cashpoint in the town of Olney,
Buckinghamshire

At 7pm, one customer reported NatWest cards being declined ‘en masse’
at a supermarket in Kent.

‘I WAS FORCED TO CANCEL MY JOB INTERVIEW BECAUSE I HAD
NO MONEY TO GET THERE’

NatWest customer Natasha Lewis said her card was declined while getting petrol last
night, which caused ‘a huge lot of grief as I knew I had money in there’, and
she had to call her partner to walk up to pay for it instead.

But the 26-year-old nursery nurse from Birmingham experienced
further problems this morning, being woken up by a text message that she
was overdrawn.

Since then she has had to cancel a job interview because she had no
money to get there, and was not able to reschedule it.

Ms Lewis told MailOnline: ‘I rang customer services, to be on hold for
an hour to be told I took money out which was not in there.
I explained I got paid that day and I checked my available balance first like I always do.

‘Then (the woman on the phone) told me that my money had disappeared and there were no signs of money going
into my account yesterday. She wanted to take money out of my savings to cover it.

‘I said “no” as it’s not my fault the money has gone, so I shouldn’t have to pay.
I had a job interview today which I’ve had to cancel as
I’ve got no access to money to get there as my
partner has the car. The bank is a joke.’

She added that she will be changing banks if the problem
is not sorted today, because she has a number of bills to come
out tomorrow.

Posts on Twitter included: ‘NatWest useful banking – really?

Useless banking is more appropriate.’ Another person tweeted:
‘I’m pleased that Natwest has crashed. No, not that.
Furious, that’s it.’

RBS customer Rachael Horrocks, 24, said: ‘Just checked my account now this morning and my account was in minus, when I had a reasonable amount of funds
in there yesterday. Today they just disappeared.

The freight imports co-ordinator, who works in Colnbrook,
Berkshire, near London Heathrow Airport, told
MailOnline: ‘I was ringing RBS for one hour this morning, only
to be told that they don’t know when they will be able to
return services back to normal. Absolutely useless.’

She said there was around £200 in the affected account when she checked at 4pm yesterday, but found it was showing -£65 when she woke up this morning.

Ms Horrocks added later on: ‘I have called again now and they have advised me that people should start seeing their money back in their accounts, but mine still has not
been restored.’

Another customer, Jill Gale, said she was affected last night and by
the outage last year – and has finally had enough of NatWest,
so switched banks this morning.

The 34-year-old from County Durham told MailOnline:
‘My wages disappeared last year for three days and last night when I filled up my car I couldn’t pay for my petrol.

‘Why should I carry £50 cash in my purse? Surely having my card and ensuring I have valid funds in the account should be enough.
As it happens I had a separate Visa which I used.

‘But it is humiliating when it happens, even though the people behind me were in the same position – and two of them didn’t
have any other way of paying.

‘Needless to say, the first thing I have done this
morning is change banks. My new bank will close my old accounts when the switch
is successful, but not without a complaint from me first.’

Meanwhile, a pilot and his crew who arrived yesterday
in the Falklands for a two-month tour found once they reached their base that they
could not use their cards when they went to
a cashpoint to pay for dinner.

The pilot’s mother Sarah Prosser told MailOnline: ‘They all had to queue up to use a phone to call home to find out what was going on and
to tell families that they could not access any money.

‘Not only are the poor lads away from home for Christmas, but they can’t
buy anything either.

NatWest apologised for the glitches and told the Twitter community it was trying to resolve the situation

‘The least RBS/NatWest could do would be to fly
some “Christmas cheer” down to them and sort their accounts out as soon as possible,
as a way of saying sorry.’

Q&A: WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?

HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE AFFECTED?

It is believed around 750,000 people unsuccessfully
tried to take out cash last night. Many more had problems with credit or debit card payments.
And a small number of people have also found their accounts to be incorrectly overdrawn, the bank said.

CAN I CLAIM COMPENSATION FOR THIS?

RBS said it will consider claims for compensation on a ‘case-by-case’ basis and insisted that if anyone has
been left out of pocket as a result of the problems, ‘we
will put this right’. But it will not reimburse people for inconvenience or time wasted, although it has apologised
for this. If customers are unhappy with the response, they can then complain to the free Financial Ombudsman Service.

HOW DO I GET IN TOUCH WITH THE BANK?

The bank has asked everyone affected to get in touch.
It can be contacted on the freephone numbers 0800 151 0404 (NatWest), 0800 151 0405 (RBS), or 0800
046 5486 (Ulster).

I’VE BEEN SENT AN EMAIL SAYING MY SECURITY DETAILS HAVE BEEN RESET

There is a phishing scam trying to trick customers into giving away security details to fraudsters.
Security experts are advising people not to click on the links in any
email claiming to be from the bank. If you have concerns about this, you should call the
bank

HOW CAN I SWITCH MY BANK ACCOUNT?

Switching bank accounts takes seven working days and all incoming and
outgoing payments will be moved to your new account, by your new
bank, MoneySavingExpert.com said.

And NatWest customer Kim Forsdyke, 48, of Wraysbury, Berkshire, said: ‘Went to pay in a shop last night and
card got declined. Put it in the cash machine and got declined.

‘Went for a meal for my daughter’s birthday and card got declined again. This morning, went to log onto
internet banking and cannot.’

Woman, 21 of Streatham, south London, said: ‘I was
also unable to access my app yesterday for the times stated
as well as even past 9:30pm.

‘Also, I was trying to purchase a camera from Currys which
was at a reduced price as a result of the recent Black Friday, and was unable to as it stated that the transaction was unsuccessful.

Looks like NatWest will be losing a customer.’

MailOnline reader Melissa, of Cheshire, said she was trying to buy Christmas presents online
from clothing retailer Topshop, but ‘because NatWest messed up, the transaction went through six times even though
it got declined each time – and I got charged nearly £500′.

Another reader, Keri, from Liverpool, said she was declined when trying to
buy shopping today  – and then found her account was
overdrawn and a £300 payment in had gone missing.

‘To try and save some embarrassment I tried to transfer money
from my savings account into my current account, only to find
they had lost the hundreds made into that account online on Sunday had also gone missing,’ she added.

‘I went straight to the bank – resulting in me not only
being late for work, but the time spent on the phone to the
complaint department meant I had to request work allow me the day off – now more out of pocket.

‘I’ve got direct debits due this week to credit cards.

Who knows whether they’ll find the missing money or how long when they do.
Worrying about my credit scoring now as well as everything else.’

Megan Clarke, 20, who went shopping last night at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, had a fortunate escape after filling
up her car with petrol before the glitch occurred.

Trying to get money: Megan Clarke, 20, who went shopping
at the Trafford Centre in Manchester last night, described seeing
a queue by a cash machine, ‘with many panic-stricken people’

She told MailOnline: ‘My card got declined three times in a
shop. I went to the cash machine and it said “unable to access account contact provider”.

A queue starting forming by the cash machine, with many panic-stricken people in need of money to get home.’

Susan Allen, director of customer solutions
at RBS Group, told BBC News today: ‘We sincerely regret the inconvenience that customers have had.
There have been some fairly horrible stories this morning about the inconvenience and distress caused for people
out shopping yesterday evening.

‘If anybody is out of pocket, then we have made a commitment that we will
make sure that everybody is put back in the right position.

‘It’s very upsetting when you hear the stories, and I’ve talked to a number of customers and seen their stories this
morning, so I can understand the frustration and
anger that people are feeling.’

She also told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘We put all our focus on getting it fixed and we now start the detailed work on what went wrong.
We understand the impact on our customers.

‘It is completely unacceptable that customers couldn’t access their own money.
The investigations would suggest it is completely unrelated to the volumes on Cyber Monday.’

A spokesman also told BBC Radio Four’s Today programmethat for ‘even one customer not to be able to
access their money was unacceptable’.

The problems have rekindled memories of the meltdown the bank suffered in the summer
of 2012, which delivered days of issues.

Sale denied: Twitter users vented their frustration about the crash

A technical glitch millions saw unable to access their salaries in what was branded one of
the biggest IT failures at a UK bank.

‘I COULDN’T PURCHASE MILK FOR MY FOUR-WEEK-OLD BABY’

A mother said she was left without milk for her four-week-old
baby after the NatWest glitch.

Kady Pike, 25, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, told MailOnline she went to a Tesco store
last night to purchase milk for her child Ted, but her card was declined three times. 

She then went to the cashpoint outside the store only to receive the message
that the machine ‘cannot process request at this time’.

Ms Pike said: ‘I have just suffered an acute
cardiac arrest bought on by a suspected clot I my lung, so my trips outside of
the house are very few and far between.  

‘Seeing that my card had been declined; naturally I panicked – a) My newborn baby
needs his milk and b) What’s happened to my money?’

She then called NatWest but said the member of staff was unable to
help further than putting her through to the customer service team.

Upon calling them, she was put on hold for 10 minutes and eventually decided to hang up.
Her father later went out to buy the milk.
She added on BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘We put all our focus on getting it fixed
and we now start the detailed work on what went wrong.
We understand the impact on our customers.

Branches were forced to open late and on a Sunday to cope with the aftermath of millions of people unable to receive money or
pay bills.

A investigation by City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority into
the outage last year is still ongoing.

Yesterday’s high profile collapse has dealt a further blow to RBS NatWest as it tries to rebuild its reputation after  that event and being
forced into a taxpayer rescue during the financial crisis.

Experts say Britain’s bank customers could face increasing technical problems due to systems creaking under
the weight of new technology and increased online payments.

Banks were early adopters of  IT systems when technology was still young and still rely substantially on decades old platforms that have high levels
of demand placed on them thanks to the internet age.

MoneySavingExpert.com creator Martin Lewis said: ‘People have
been left stranded and unable to get home, embarrassed in shops,
and missed out on hot deals on the biggest shopping day of the year – all because NatWest,
RBS and Ulster haven’t got their act together.

‘This is at least the third time in the last 18 months this
has happened, and while thankfully it was shorter than last summer’s almost a month-long outage for Ulster customers – it should still raise huge questions for customers.

‘Couple this not-fit-for-purpose technology with the fact its bank accounts are mostly far shy of the best-buy deals, and many of its customers should genuinely be looking to
place their custom elsewhere.’  

Iain Chidgey, from data management company Delphix, told MailOnline: ‘Software glitches are
becoming more and more frequent in the banking industry.
Often the cause is insufficient testing.

‘The databases in financial institutions are large and often more complex
than in other companies. IT departments provide copies of databases for testing, but by the time a copy is available,
the data itself is often old.

‘In our data-intensive world, data can be obsolete
after only a couple of hours, but when refreshing just a
single testing data set can takes days, the data will never be up to date enough for risk free testing.’

And, following the technical problems, security specialist firm Check Point today warned customers to watch out for phishing emails which appear to have been sent by their bank.

Cash machines have been affected and one customer reported
NatWest cards being declined ‘en masse’ at a supermarket in Kent

The company’s UK managing director Keith Bird said: ‘Bank customers need to be very careful
not to click on links in emails which appear to come from RBS, NatWest or Ulster Bank
advising them about changes to account security, no matter how authentic the email seems to
be.

‘DECLINED CARD MEANT I COULDN’T BUY ANY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS’

Suresh Mekala spent more than £13 on a train ticket from Gloucester to Bath to do some Christmas shopping.

But it was a wasted trip as the 29-year-old ended up having his NatWest
card declined at several stores – and could not buy anything.

He told MailOnline: ‘I never keep cash as I use my card
to pay for all my transactions. But I had a really bad day – I went to my favourite shops got lots
of shopping but my card was declined several times.

‘NatWest is the only bank account I have and no cash. My trip was for
nothing.

‘I couldn’t withdraw money from cash point or check my online banking.
I’m really frustrated with the bank.’

‘Attackers have jumped at this opportunity to try and trick customers affected by yesterday’s technical problems
into revealing their bank details.

‘For those attackers, it’s just a numbers game,
but it could have serious consequences for customers. Phishing emails continue
to be the most common source for social engineering attacks.’

RBS, which is 80 per cent owned by the taxpayer after being rescued during the financial crisis, has also been under fire over the
last week over allegations that it drove distressed firms to collapse to buy back
their assets at rock-bottom prices.

Trade union Unite, which represents RBS staff, called
for the bank to halt its cost cutting programme – which has seen thousands of jobs
axed and IT functions sent abroad – in the wake of the IT problems.

National officer Dominic Hook said: ‘It is unacceptable that the bank’s customers are once again facing inconvenience.

‘Unite has grave concerns that staffing challenges are exacerbating the problems
facing the bank.’

Richard Lloyd, executive director of consumer
group Which?, said: ‘Yet again consumers are bearing the brunt
of bank failures.

‘RBS must explain why these IT glitches keep happening and assure
customers that they are doing everything to prevent it in future.

‘Banks’ IT systems are not fit for modern banking
purposes, and it’s high time the Financial Conduct Authority
took action.

‘Unhappy customers should also remember it is now quicker and easier to switch
banks so they can vote with their feet.’

IT’S A FEELING OF DEJA-VU FOR MILLIONS OF NATWEST CUSTOMERS WITH CYBER MONDAY’S FIASCO BEING THE
LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF GLITCHES

NatWest’s slogan is ‘helpful banking’, but that phrase will leave
a bitter taste in the mouth for many of its customers,
with the bank suffering a spate of major IT glitches
recently.

In mid-2012 the technical meltdowns were so severe that Stephen Hester, the former boss of
NatWest owner RBS, personally apologised for the issues.

The IT problems led to payments going missing, wages disappearing and holidays and home purchases being disrupted.

The bank kept 1,000 branches open late for one day in all
major towns and cities to help frustrated customers.

Mr Hester admitted that NatWest had let down its customers after hundreds of people vented their anger over the issue.

The fiasco cost the bank some £175 million in compensation.

And in October 2012 the bank had to suspend a mobile phone banking App feature called GetCash, after the service was subject to a
spate of ‘phishing’ attacks by fraudsters.

The bank also had huge technical problems earlier this year
when the mobile Apps used by two million customers to access their accounts from iPhones,
Android smartphones and tablets failed.

Millions of customers were locked out of their accounts for several hours as a result.

GET PAID £100 TO MOVE BANKS – WHO OFFERS THE BEST
DEALS?

If you’re fed up with your bank and thinking of switching, there are plenty of incentives to move.This is Money’s five of the
best current accounts is a regularly updated guide to where the best offers are.

Top deals include Halifax’s Reward Account promising
new customers £100 to switch and £5 per month if they stay in credit.

First Direct pays£100 to new customers who switch to its First Account.
On top of that, the bank is so confident in its customer service that it will give you afurther £100 if you chose to close the account within the
first 12 months.

Santander’s 123 current account, on the other hand, pays interest on in-credit balances- 1 per cent on balances between £1,000 and £2,000,
2 per cent between £2,000 and £3,000 and 3 per cent on balances between £3,000 and £20,
000.

Nationwide FlexDirect offers to pay 5 per cent interest on balances up to £2,500
for the first year, while its FlexAccount delivers free travel insurance.

Read our switching banks guide for step-by step advice on switching your current account.

Amy Andrew

Current Accounts Of The Week

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