http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/building-societies/9429771/First-Nationwide-now-NatWest-suffers-second-systems-glitch.html
4:02PM BST 26 Jul 2012
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NatWest said on its Twitter feed: "Some customers may have issues with their online banking and using their debit cards at the moment. Working as hard as we can to resolve. We'll post updates as soon as we have more information."
Cash machine withdrawals using debit cards are also affected, the bank added.
Earlier in the summer the bank suffered a major systems collapse when millions of customers were unable to check their balances, withdraw cash or make payments. NatWest promised that no customers would be left out of pocket as a result of the technology problems.
Today customers of Nationwide, the country's biggest building society, said around 704,000 customers were affected by an apparent technical problem with the mutual's payment systems.
The building society confirmed that there was an "issue" with debits from accounts. It said on Twitter: "An issue with debit card transactions is affecting some customers. Sorry, accounts will be corrected."
Later it added: "Some debit card transactions made on Tuesday were taken again on Wednesday. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We’re working hard and payments will be corrected overnight. We assure you that any related charges will be refunded in full."
One Nationwide customer said: "I noticed that a large debit for my home insurance had gone through twice – once on the 24th and then again the next day. Not great as it was nearly £300. At first I thought it was the insurance company, so I rang them, but they could only see the one transaction.
"Then I rang Nationwide and the call centre confirmed that there was a problem between them and Visa and up to 2m transactions were affected."
One customer tweeted in response to NatWest's message: "Please tell me this is a bad joke?"
Nationwide has moved to quash rumours that a technical glitch that has caused debit card transactions to be debited twice is on the scale of the NatWest systems failure last month. It blamed "human error" and has apologised to customers.
The glitch is an embarrassment to the UK's biggest building society given that it was quick to jump on the bandwagon when NatWest's systems went into meltdown and Barclays was rocked by the Libor scandal at the end of last month. It went on an advertising spree that boasted: "Nationwide. On your side. If you're think of switching, why not talk to us today."
The following questions and answers should help put affected customers' minds at rest.
Who does the technical glitch affect?
It affects 704,000 current account card holders who made transactions on July 24 - some 50,000 will be adversely impacted.
What happened?
According to Nationwide it was "human error" which saw the "batch" of Visa transactions it received late last night put through twice – hence the duplication of payments today.
When will I get my money back?
The duplicated transactions will be corrected overnight so you should see refunds in your account tomorrow.
Will I be charged if any payments have bounced as a result?
No. Nationwide stressed that no charges would be levied on affected customers.
What happens if my mortgage payment has been rejected because there were insufficient funds in my account?
You should contact the society immediately. It said it would rectify the situation and ensure that your credit file was not affected.
What is Nationwide doing to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
It said it was reviewing its processes as a matter of urgency.
