Metro Bank customers have reported distress after an IT glitch caused payment delays and false negative balances. The bank acknowledged a 'short delay' affecting inbound and outbound payments on Tuesday morning, but hours later, customers continued to complain about issues including duplicate charges and unauthorised overdrafts.
Social media users described waking up to unexpected negative balances, with one customer reporting a minus £7,000 and another a minus £500. Emily Gregory said on Facebook: 'They've taken money for things I've bought but then duplicated those charges … I have no overdraft so how am I supposed to buy anything now?'
The outage, tracked by Downdetector between 8am and 10am, left some unable to pay for essentials like food and nappies. Tanya Pegler posted on X: 'So when is this being sorted as u need food and nappies in for my kids and can't do nothing right now its beyond a joke.'
Metro Bank apologised and said the issue was resolved, but added that some customers may still see delays and inaccurate balances while earlier payments are processed. The bank's service status page had stated: 'Our payment services are currently unavailable.'
The incident follows a series of IT failures at UK banks this year, including outages at NatWest, Santander, and Barclays, raising scrutiny of banking technology systems.
