Nationwide offers refunds after technical glitch delays payments again – what you need to know

The issue first began around 4:30am on Monday and impacted 'faster payments', which enable you to send up to £10,000 to another bank account within two hours. Faster payments are now being processed as of this afternoon but Nationwide has asked customers to "bear with it" as transactions could still take a while due to the backlog. 

All other services, including direct debits and standing orders, are working as normal and you can continue to use your Nationwide cards to pay for goods and services.

Nationwide has apologised for “any inconvenience caused”. We've full info on how to complain and how to get a refund of any fees charged below, but if you're unhappy about the outage and are thinking of switching, you can also check out our Best bank accounts guide. 

Complain to Nationwide if you've been adversely impacted 

Nationwide says any fees or charges it's levied as a result of today's problem - for example, if you were pushed into the red because you were waiting for money to come through and a payment was taken, or you've incurred other later payment penalties - will be automatically refunded.

However, it's best to keep an eye on your account and challenge Nationwide if you don't hear from the bank. Keep hold of any evidence of these charges and make an official complaint asking to be put back into the position you would have been if it wasn't for the delays.

Nationwide adds that you should contact it to discuss any charges and fees incurred by other providers, though it says it will refund any costs related to this issue. You can contact it in branch, on the telephone on 0800 30 20 15, online or by post to The Complaints Team, Nationwide Building Society, NW 2020, Swindon, SN38 1NW.

If Nationwide doesn't respond within eight weeks or you're unhappy with the response you do get you can take your complaint to free independent arbitrator, the Financial Ombudsman Service. See our Financial Rights guide for more info on how to complain. 

Customers vent their frustration on Twitter

Here's a selection of some of the tweets we've seen about the problems on social media: 

Nationwide has been plagued by payment problems over the past few months

This isn’t the first time Nationwide customers have been left unable to send or receive money via the faster payments service.

In December 2021, just before Christmas, hundreds of customers were unable to transfer money in and out of their accounts. This left many unable to access their cash days before Christmas. 

The issue was resolved the following day and similarly to today's issue, Nationwide said it would refund any customers who were unfairly impacted.