RBS and NatWest customers go into meltdown over mobile app failure

NatWest and RBS customers have fired off a volley of complaints following a two-day breakdown in service from the bank's mobile apps.

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RBS and NatWest customers go into meltdown over mobile app failure

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The outage follows a routine upgrade to the banks' online services over the weekend.



The Twitter service team @natwest_help have been busy apologising to customers who have used the micro-blogging service to express their frustration with the ongoing problems.




The degree of anger expressed by customers over the glitch demonstrates the booming popularity of mobile devices for accessing banking services. According to the British Bankers’ Association, the number of mobile banking transactions has soared over the past year, with smartphones and tablets used for 18.6 million transactions a week.

In a statement e-mailed to Finextra, NatWest says: “We are aware that some customers are experiencing difficulty accessing our mobile banking. We’re investigating this and we are working to get it resolved as quickly as possible. In the meantime our customers can visit one of our branches, use online banking or call us via telephone banking as normal. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience."
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Comments: (2)

A Finextra member 

"The degree of anger expressed by customers over the glitch demonstrates the booming popularity of mobile devices for accessing banking services."

Might be more to do with the even more painful process of doing internet banking! I bank with First Direct and their 'two-factor' authentication with a number generated from my phone which then needs to be entered on-line puts me right off using anything other than my phone!

 

A Finextra member 

The alternative to the phone is another authentication device for most OLB (including First Direct), so I think I will put up with using my phone (which i always have with me) on those rare occasions I want to use a bigger screen to do my banking. Speaking personally First Direct's most recent app gets me checking balances, playing on-line and moving money between accounts far more regularly than on-line banking (or indeed branch banking!) ever did. I expect the differences between the form factors will evaporate eventually however.

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