In This Article:
A technical glitch at Capital One has left thousands of banking customers unable to access their bank accounts, process payments, or receive direct deposits since Wednesday, January 15. The banking giant, which serves over 100 million clients across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., is scrambling to resolve the problem that has persisted until today.
The disruption, attributed to a technical issue with a third-party vendor, has affected various account services, including deposits and payment processing for consumer, small business, and commercial banking operations.
As of Friday morning, more than 3,400 outage reports were logged on Down Detector, a website that monitors technical outages, up from around 2,100 on Thursday.
“The impact cannot be understated,” says Jack Prenter, CEO and personal finance expert at Dollarwise. “If Capital One wants to regain their customers' trust, they should assess claims from customers who have been negatively financially impacted and make them whole and do it quickly, not taking weeks or months.”
Capital One outage comes at a bad time for customers
The timing of the outage has been particularly problematic for many customers, as it coincided with the mid-month pay period. Numerous account holders have reported being unable to access their paychecks, leaving them in a difficult position to pay bills, buy groceries, and cover other essential expenses.
“Outages happen more often than you might imagine. Bank of America had a similar issue in October, where customers balances were marked as zero and that prevented them from making transactions,” says Prenter. “However, that was resolved in a few hours. What's unusual about the Capital One outage is that it's extended well into its 2nd day now and the issue appears to be very widespread.”
One frustrated customer expressed their concerns on social media, stating, "Some of us have bills to pay and groceries to buy. At least keep us in the loop." Another user remarked, "Finally got through on the phone @CapitalOne, and the representative was dismissive because she's tired of the same calls about direct deposits. We need to cancel #CapitalOne; some of us rely on those deposits to live."
Capital One has acknowledged the issue and is working to resolve it. In an email to customers on Thursday evening, the company stated, "Due to a technical issue experienced by a third-party vendor, some account services, deposits, and payment processing for portions of our consumer, small business, and commercial bank have been temporarily impacted."