Metro Bank app down as customers left in 'minus' figures in accounts due to glitch

Metro Bank appeared to have issues with its banking app earlier today, with customers complaining that payments were being duplicated.

The issue left some customers in "minus" figures in their bank accounts, according to social media posts. Others said they were also experiencing trouble with sending payments.

One person said: "The payments have cleared but also pending putting me in minus in my account." Another posted: "Guys, is anyone else Metro Bank app saying they are in minus numbers?"

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A third commented: "There are five transactions that have been duplicated. Both appearing as pending transactions and transactions that have now been applied to my account."

A fourth person said: "When I tried to transfer money aswell, it didn't allow it." The issue appeared to start shortly after 6am, according to outage tracker DownDetector. Metro Bank also updated its service status page to confirm the problems.

However, the bank later told The Mirror shortly before 11am that the issue should now be fixed. A spokesperson said: “We experienced a short delay affecting inbound and outbound payments earlier this morning.

“This was resolved and customers can currently make payments as usual. Some customers may see delays while we process these earlier payments, we are prioritising this and working hard to minimise impact. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

We've asked Metro Bank how long it will take for customer account balances to return to normal and we'll update this article when we get a response.

On its website, an earlier post on its service status page read: "We’re currently having issues with our payment services, so it may take longer to receive money into your account.

"We’re working to fix this as quickly as possible and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you."

An identical statement had also been published earlier confirming issues with sending money, as well. Metro Bank was launched as a challenger bank in 2010.

Your rights when banking apps go down

If your bank services have gone down, you aren't automatically entitled to any compensation - it instead depends on how badly the outage has affected you.

For example, if it made you miss a bill or affected your credit score, then you may be able to ask for compensation. It also depends on how long the service disruption lasts for and how quickly the bank worked to resolve it.

You would need to put in a complaint with evidence on how the issue left you out of pocket. If you're in desperate need of access to your money but your online services are down, you can go to your local bank branch to withdraw your funds as normal.

If you don’t have a local bank branch nearby or you're unable to get there, try and call your bank or contact it on social media to ask what to do.