Challenger bank Cashplus hit with tech difficulties as customers locked out of accounts
FURIOUS customers of challenger bank Cashplus say they haven’t been able to access their money, with at least person locked out for a week.
The electronic money issuer confirmed it is having widespread problems after an update to its security services.
Cashplus says it's also experiencing high call volumes in a service status announcement on its website.
Cashplus is a provider of prepaid MasterCards and current accounts for consumers, small businesses and local government authorities.
One business owner, who wanted to remain anonymous, told The Sun: “I’ve been unable to login to my account using the Cashplus app for an entire week now.
“I can’t check if clients have paid invoices or pay myself my salary.
“How exactly am I supposed to run my small business?”
Another person tweeted: “Money is being paid into my business account and I cannot access it to transfer to my personal account to live and pay bills.”
While someone else said: "We currently have THOUSANDS of pounds just 'missing' with Cashplus.
“It left my clients' account (with proof) many working days ago yet has not entered our business account or been found.”
A very small number of customers have also asked the firm if they are going bust.
When asked by The Sun, Cashplus said the tweets were pure speculation and firmly denied the company is nearing collapse.
A spokesman said: "This is entirely false.
"This appears to be a small-scale social media rumour started by someone who does not appear to be a Cashplus customer."
A spokesman added that firm has been profitable for the last eight years.
He added: "Cashplus is a successful business that's been operating for 14 years and is trading as normal.
"In June we reported record revenues of £45m and our eight consecutive year of operating profit."
Cashplus confirmed the problems are being caused by new changes to how customers make payments.
Rolled out last week, the new update impacts customer authentication when they're trying to access their accounts.
There are currently 1.8 million accounts linked with Cashplus and it's not clear how many are facing problems.
But the spokesman added that the company hopes to have contacted all remaining customers by tomorrow.
He said: "We have experienced some high volumes to our customer services lines over the last week as we’ve rolled out some security changes to comply with new regulations.
"A large majority of customers have made these updates with no issue but some customers wanting help have waited longer than usual to speak with an advisor.
"We're sorry about this and we will be proactively getting in touch with customers who have had issues.
"We are also aware that some customers are using social media to get in touch with us and we’re responding to those people on a case-by-case basis."
Cashplus told The Sun that customers' money is held as safeguarded funds in an account in line with regulations and cannot be used by the business.
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Last month, a HSBC and Tesco Bank glitch locked customers out of their apps and phone banking.
TSB customers were also locked out of their accounts in August after online and mobile banking went down.
While almost half a million Monzo customers were urged to change their pin after a security error.
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