Shoppers across the UK have had their credit and debit cards declined in one of the busiest online shopping days for the year.
The technology meltdown appears to have affected the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, which includes NatWest and Ulster Bank.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, RBS – which owns NatWest as well as Ulster Bank – said confirmed the issue had been resolved and said sorry to customers.
“The systems issues that affected our customers last nighthave now been resolved and all of our services are now back working normally,” the group said.
“We would like to apologise to our customers. If anyone has been left out of pocket as a result of these problems, we will put this right.
“Any customer experiencing issues this morning should get in touch with our call centres or branches where our staff will be ready to help.”
The meltdown came amid a day dubbed Cyber Monday, which is typically when the highest amount of online transactions are expected so shoppers can meet pre-Christmas delivery deadlines.
Angry customers have taken to social media to vent their frustrations.
“Natwest is down. Just looked like a broke alcoholic attempting to buy booze, but apparently it is not my fault. Thanks Natwest,” Holly Larsen, from Hither Green in southeast London tweeted.
Liz Stinchcombe wrote: “Natwest gone down again. Brilliant especially when your in your natwest uniform doing your food shop.”
Others seemed relieved to understand why their accounts were being declined.
“So that’s why my card got declined 3 times and I couldn’t log in to online banking,” London woman Charley Francis wrote.
Customer reports indicate the problem affected the banks’ websites and smartphone apps as well.