Banks and building societies should “ensure that compensation is given to customers affected by today’s online and mobile banking outages, according to a leading consumer watchdog.
Who? is urging mainstream financial institutions to take action after customers of HSBC, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money were unable to “receive pension payments” and wages due to app outages.
Jenny Ross, editor of Who? Money, outlined the “devastating” consequences these mistakes could have on customers.
She explained: “The impact of technical glitches such as these cannot be underestimated, especially so close to the end of the month when millions of people are waiting for a paycheck or pension payment.
“This could be devastating for people who, through no fault of their own, could miss important bill payments, find themselves unable to pay for essential services or risk overdrafts.
“[These] issues that could also impact consequences such as late payment or overdraft penalties, or even affect your credit score.”
Do you have a money story to share? Contact us by email at money@gbnews.uk.
Among the affected banks is HSBC
BYE
A money expert has broken down the case for compensation as a result of technical problems experienced by many customers of Nationwide, HSBC and Virgin Money.
Ross added: “While the issue appears to have been resolved, banks should ensure that affected customers are swiftly compensated for any loss arising from today’s issues.
“Keep evidence of affected payments in case you need to make a claim, and if you’re likely to miss bill payments in the meantime, contact your mortgage or service provider to let them know you’ve been affected. they should waive any late payment fees.”
Today’s event comes after it was reported earlier this year that similar banking app outage issues were affecting Santander customers.
Hundreds of customers had their accounts blocked in April, but the situation was quickly resolved.
Experts are sounding the alarm that this trend of banking app outages could lead to the hacking theory gaining ground.
Dan Reavill, head of technology for Travers Smith, said: “The fact that multiple banks were affected will almost certainly lead to speculation that this is part of a coordinated and widespread attack.
In its latest statement, Virgin Money said: “Update – we are continuing to work on outstanding payments and aim to complete this by the end of Saturday 29 June. If we are unable to process any late payments for any reason, we will contact you directly. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience today.
“If you have tried to send a payment from your Virgin Money account and received an error message but it has been pulled from your Virgin Money account, please do not attempt to make the payment again unless we inform you that the payment cannot be processed.
“If you’ve tried to send a payment from your Virgin Money account and received an error message, but you don’t see the payment reducing your account balance, please contact the person you’re trying to pay and request the payment again if necessary. .”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Bank branch closures continue at an ‘alarming pace’, according to which?GETTY
By 2pm today, HSBC confirmed on its X account that online and mobile services had returned to normal and customers should be able to access their savings or current accounts.
The bank added: “The payment issue affecting multiple banks has also been resolved. We sincerely apologize to those affected and will continue to monitor the systems closely.”
A Nationwide spokeswoman said a technical issue had “unfortunately delayed a small number of payments we expect to be processed and paid today”.
But the building society reiterated that “the vast majority of payments went through as normal” and all other customers should be doing well.