Hundreds Of NatWest Customers Saw Their Money 'Vanish' Overnight: ' I Have No Idea Where My Money Is'

Hundreds of NatWest customers woke up to bank balances that made no sense this week after money they had moved into the bank's new digital savings feature simply vanished from their accounts.

The fault was tied to Pots, a budgeting tool NatWest launched earlier this year that lets current account holders ring-fence portions of their balance for rent, bills or savings. Customers who tried to move money in or out of their Pots over the weekend found their transactions processed on one end but never reflected on the other, GB News reported.

One customer told The Sun that he had transferred £3,500 ($4,635) back out of a Pot to pay for an Airbnb booking. The funds left the Pot but never arrived in his current account. When he rang NatWest, staff confirmed the transaction had been posted but could not tell him where his money had gone.

'They can see that the transaction has been posted, but did not know where my money was,' he said. 'I'm now £3,500.00 overdrawn and have no idea where my money is.'

Customers Took To Forums as NatWest Pots Bug Spread

He was far from alone. On the MoneySavingExpert forums, a user posting under the handle Lisadp1970 described putting £1,000 ($1,324) in one Pot and £150 ($199) in another to keep rent money aside. She transferred the funds back on Sunday and had already sent her rent to her landlord, which cleared from her account with no issues. She could even see the Pot deposits in her transaction history.

By Monday morning, everything had changed. Both accounts showed as massively overdrawn. The Pot transfer records had disappeared from her transaction history entirely, though she could still see them inside the Pots themselves.

'I now have no money at all. Zilch, nothing, and they don't seem bothered by that!' she wrote. 'Surely they have no right to lose £1,150 of my money and just expect me to wait for them to fix it?'

She added that direct debits were due to go out and would fail because the account showed insufficient funds. Another user replied that they were dealing with the exact same problem.

Money sitting in a Pot is treated as separate from the linked current account. If the current account dips into negative territory, overdraft charges can apply even if the Pot holds plenty of cash. That design meant a display glitch carried real financial consequences.

NatWest Says Glitch Fixed, No One Left Out of Pocket

NatWest confirmed the issue affected fewer than 500 customers and said it had been resolved. Balances would update by Tuesday afternoon, the bank said, and no one was ultimately left out of pocket.

'Some customers have experienced a delay when withdrawing or topping up their Pots through our mobile app and online banking,' a spokesperson said. 'We've resolved this and are applying these transactions to customers' accounts, so they will see their balances update shortly. We're sorry for any inconvenience caused,' per GB News.

The problem was confined to NatWest accounts only. Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank customers were unaffected.

This is not the first time NatWest has left its customers scrambling. The bank reported 13 material IT incidents between 2023 and 2025, paying approximately £348,000 ($472,000) in compensation, according to data submitted to the Treasury Select Committee. Across nine of the UK's largest banks, the committee found more than 33 days' worth of unplanned outages in a two-year window, GB News added.

The Pots glitch arrives barely a month after Lloyds Banking Group disclosed that a 12 March failure had exposed transaction data and personal details of up to 447,936 Halifax, Lloyds, and Bank of Scotland customers. Treasury Select Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier called it a reminder of the trade-offs in modern banking.

NatWest shut 53 branches last year, pushing more customers onto digital channels where reliability is not optional. Several people affected by the Pots bug said phone staff could see the stuck transactions but had no power to manually correct balances or release the funds. For a feature barely months old, it is a poor first impression.