The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
What you need to know about TSB’s week of banking chaos
ustomers of TSB have faced a week of disruption that has left many without access to their bank accounts for days and raised significant questions about account security.
Despite TSB chief executive Paul Pester’s expectation that a fix on Tuesday morning would solve the problems, it is being predicted that the crisis will last into the coming week, after the bank had to draft in external help from technology firm IBM.
Without access to their accounts, customers have suffered a range of knock-on effects, including missing credit card payments, being unable to pay property deposits and being forced into overdrafts on other accounts.
Here is what happened, what customers’ rights are, and how to switch account for those who have had enough.
Last weekend TSB undertook a long-planned migration of 1.3 billion customer records from a banking system it rented from Lloyds to its own new system. It took its online and mobile banking services offline from Friday evening to early Sunday evening to do this.
When it brought the system back up, customers reported that they were able to see accounts that were not theirs when they logged in. TSB took its system down again to fix the problem and put it back online at 2am on Monday.
Since then customers have struggled to get access to their accounts, which TSB blamed on the volume of customers trying to log in. However, it took its services offline once more on Tuesday to apply a new fix. After that, its systems were still running only at partial capacity, meaning the problems continued.
Customers have reported a range of other issues too, including incorrect balances, login details not working, errors when trying to settle credit card balances, credit cards disappearing from accounts and more. TSB had, at the time of writing, not acknowledged these, and Mr Pester questioned their legitimacy when they were put to him.
TSB said those who could see other people’s accounts had mistakenly been given full online access to “nominee” accounts for 20 minutes on Sunday evening. These are accounts where someone other than the account holder, usually a family member, is given partial access. This access is meant to be possible only via branch or phone. About 2pc of TSB’s 5.5 million customers use such accounts, although TSB said only 402 of those mistakenly given access had logged in.
However, a number of people who said they were TSB customers reported to Telegraph Money that they were able to see accounts on Sunday evening that they were not linked to at all. Niall McDonnell, 28, claimed that he was able to view a business account containing £2.8m that he had no connection with. Telegraph Money has raised some of these cases with TSB.
In the event that your bank suffers technical problems preventing access to your accounts, you can claim compensation for any losses incurred.
That includes any charges for late payment, extra costs incurred such as credit card interest, and any knock-on costs from not being able to make a payment. There is also scope to claim for non-financial harm, such as the stress caused.
You can ask the bank to have your credit file corrected if not being able to access your account leads to negative consequences for your credit score, such as missing a credit card payment.
Mr Pester has assured customers that they will not be left out of pocket.
To claim, first gather any evidence you might need, such as receipts, emails, invoices, or a copy of your credit file. You need to be able to prove the loss.
Then get in touch with your bank via the complaints department, detailing what happened and what you want them to cover.
If you feel that the bank doesn’t handle your case satisfactorily, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It will adjudicate on the dispute and can order a bank to pay compensation.
If you want to leave your bank, the process is straightforward. The current account switching service (Cass) has largely automated the process.
It covers 99pc of available current accounts and enables you to switch while keeping your direct debits, standing orders and other regular payments, including any regular incoming payments, intact. Any payments mistakenly sent to your old account will also be forwarded.
First, find a new bank account to switch to and check you meet the requirements. Make sure to agree any overdraft facilities you require and gather any records from your old account before you initiate a switch.
Then ask your new bank to move your old account using the Cass. You can set a date for the switch and can use your old account until the day before. Don’t set up new payments in the seven days before the switch, as they won’t be moved.
On the day, simply start using your new account. If anything goes wrong the “current account switch guarantee” means your new bank has to refund any interest or charges incurred because of a delay or mistake.
The bank’s customers are angry, but there is action they can take, writes James Connington ‘If the bank doesn’t address your complaint, go to the Ombudsman’