'Minus £7,000 Overnight': Metro Bank Glitch Sparks Outrage as Customers Report Vanished Funds

Metro Bank customers erupted in frustration on Tuesday, 7 October, after a major system glitch left many unable to access their accounts or make in-app transactions. Some users reported unauthorised overdrafts and even missing funds, sparking panic and outrage online.

Complaints quickly flooded social media as customers demanded answers and criticised the bank's handling of the crisis.

The Guardian reports that Leah Lovena Cairnie expressed her dismay with Metro Bank in a Facebook post. 'Metro Bank this is not okay. Many of us have woken up today to negative balances and missing funds. I've seen someone post they've woken up to minus £7,000, and personally I've woken up to -£500. We're not just account numbers we're real people, with families, emotions, and responsibilities.'

One user on X, @AlecMilly, wrote: 'Why are you duplicating my payments? I've lost £400.'

Another, @Jimlfc1992, described the situation as 'completely unacceptable' and called for compensation.

Meanwhile, @Kimmibasil slammed the bank's customer service, calling it 'absolutely disgusting.'

Metro Bank's service status page acknowledged the disruption, stating: 'Our payment services are currently unavailable. We're working to fix the problem and have them up and running as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.'

According to the outage-tracking site Downdetector, a surge in reports of problems occurred between 8 and 10:00am on Tuesday.

Later that day, Metro Bank issued a statement on X confirming that the issue had been resolved. 'This has now been resolved, and customers can currently make payments as usual,' the post read. 'Some customers may see delays while we process earlier payments and balances may still be showing inaccurately. We are prioritising this and working hard to minimise impact.'

Despite this, the post has received many responses from users who claim the problem was still unresolved when they checked.

UK Banks Under Fire Over System Outages

The banking industry's technological infrastructure has been under scrutiny due to a rise in system breakdowns.

Recent high-profile system failures at some of Britain's biggest banks, including NatWest, Barclays, and Santander, have affected millions of clients by blocking their access to online banking, mobile apps, and payment services.

In June, NatWest customers were locked out of their mobile banking app following a faulty update that prevented payments and transfers throughout the day. The bank later apologised for the disruption.

Another significant issue happened in August, when thousands of clients of Sainsbury's Bank were unable to log in after the migration of their accounts to NatWest's servers. This led to increased criticism from the customers.

Earlier this year, Barclays also had major disruptions. There was an issue with online and app account access and payment processing for customers across the UK in late January and early February. In response, the bank has issued compensation payments to customers ranging from £5 million to £7.5 million, to compensate for their losses and inconvenience.

In March, Santander users experienced difficulties with making card payments or gaining access to branches due to tech issues, and the company's mobile and telephone banking services also went unavailable. Although online services remained partly operational, many account holders voiced their dissatisfaction over the continuous outages that affected the whole industry.

Data provided to the Treasury Committee indicate that nine large financial institutions had over 800 hours of downtime due to 158 unscheduled tech problems between January 2023 and February 2025. Since then, lawmakers and regulators have demanded more funding for digital resilience in the hopes of safeguarding customers from such disasters in the future.