TSB online banking meltdown: have you been affected?

Can log in sometimes , have transferred money between accounts . Can view recent transactions on all accounts but not able to download statements , Requested paper statements for accounts , but have been told if i do this will lose benefits and interest on current plus accounts .
TSB not able to provide on line statements , but will penalise customers who request paper statements.
I thought the CE had publicly stated that customers would not out of pocket , and that all fees and charges this month would be cancelled.
To make matters worse tried to change my statement preferences back to paperless on the web site but not yet able to do this.
Not impressed . Will cancel TSB credit card & move my isa and savings accounts to a different provider .
Will move current accounts if problems persist , and if CE gets a bonus this year.

I have not been able to access my mortgage account, which I could do before. This is very inconvenient.

I had to pop in to our “local” branch, a few miles away. I had to drive, park, and walk for quite a while to get to the bank. There the manager was very kind and checked my problem. I can’t get online from my PC but I can from my mobile phone. But moneies went out and back in. I was not too sure what was going on. The manager assured me that I was probably the rare one to have accountered the problem with my PC although my husband has his own PC and he had the same problem. The screen goes all funny with strange characters for a few seconds then freezes, then that’s it, cannot do anything with it. Sometimes we have messages that they are aware of our problem and try and solve the problem as quickly as they can. Apparently, another customer more “informed” than I was told me that the Spanish bank that “bought” TSB after separating from Lloyd is having troubles… But nobody tells us anything at TSB. It is all hush hush…

Yes my IT banking with TSB still states sorry on-line banking not available. If you go back to the TSB home page scroll down to Internet Banking click on it and it may allow you to access your account, but you have to be quick or you will have a message time run out and you have to repeat the acti

Have been able to log in but very intermittent, the log in is very slow and when you try to extend the “view latest statement” it logs off.

Update from the Press Association:

TSB chief executive Paul Pester has apologised again to customers in front of MPs grilling him over the bank’s technology meltdown that left thousands without access to their accounts over days of disruption.

Mr Pester said: “Let me start by apologising to our customers. Clearly we have caused some serious disruption to our customers over the last 10 days and for that we are truly sorry.

“You will be aware that the source of these issues was a migration that we did the weekend of April 21 and 22 and over that weekend we extracted all of our customer records for 5.2 million customers – 1.3 billion records – transformed those records and loaded them on to a new platform.

“I’m certainly not downplaying anything about the issues that our customers have faced since then but it’s important to understand that that migration of data went smoothly, the bank balanced to the penny, so the £31 billion worth of customer balances from Lloyds have come across to the new platform and the balances are balanced to the penny.

“The underlying engine of the bank is actually running relatively smoothly. The issues that we are seeing, for which I apologise again to our customers, is that the platform’s ability to support sufficient customers accessing our website and mobile app simultaneously was an issue for us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday last week.”

He said around 95% of customers were now having success accessing the bank’s internet and mobile services, adding: “We did not see those figures soon after the migration and as I say that led to an unacceptable level of performance to our customers.”

I am not a TSB customer, but years ago, I was responsible for operating a direct debit bureau and more recently, I was part of the team that created a new a credit card processing system for an oil company. Both systems suffered from severe data corruption problems but the ‘victim’ was the Oil Company who could not get their payments, rather than the end customer. With this background, I was interested to see what the TSB team had to say.

The two-hour grilling they received made, for me, gripping television as MPs one after another brought their critical gaze and constituents traumas that reflected different aspects of the problem. I could not understand why Chief Executive Paul Pester kept talking about the ‘smooth running underlying engine’ and the ‘small minority’ of customers with problems. For anyone who has queued outside Oxford Circus tube when the gates are temporarily shut, being told that the trains are ‘running well’ is unhelpful and meaningless when all you want is to get home.

THEN to my shame, for I too am guilty of the same misunderstanding, I realised what was going on. The customers’ worst affected are barely living within their means, if not beyond them. Every day is like a terrible game in which to stay alive you have to keep your balance above zero. That requires constant monitoring, and delicate but accurate shifting of payments around infrequent and inadequate income credits. Take these tools away and the ‘game’ is lost. Promises that ‘no-one will lose out’ hold little reassurance because these are not people with the free time, confidence or ability to assemble a case for compensation, especially when additional costs from third parties have been incurred, not costs internal to TSB.

I bank with RBS who have suffered computer meltdowns in recent years. Here the second part of my realisation became manifest as it surely did NOT for Paul Pester in that grilling. I do not live on the edge of financial viability and I doubt that Paul Pester does. For me, when RBS had a hiccup, then I could get cash from my credit cards or go along to the office of one of my savings institutions. Losing access to my bank account was an inconvenience – but THAT IS ALL. That I now think is how Paul Pester was thinking when answering those MPs questions.

Had he spoken about the need to provide ‘Emergency Payments’ to TSB customers and perhaps ongoing work on mechanisms for approving and making them, he could have saved the situation. Such ‘last ditch’ processes are, or should be, one of the components of a comprehensive contingency plan.