Capital One customers complain about their accounts being blocked

Thousands of customers reported problems banking with Capital One due to an interruption in access to online services that began Wednesday and persisted through the weekend.

On at least two occasions Friday afternoon, nearly 4,000 customers each time reported problems making transactions with Capital One, a credit card and banking company based in McLean, Virginia, according to Down Detector, a website that monitors Internet and application outages.

In a statement shared by Capital One’s customer service account on social media, the company said Thursday that a “technical issue with a third-party vendor” was “temporarily impacting certain account services, deposits and payment processing for some of our consumers, small businesses and commercial banking.

Customers have expressed frustration over delays in direct deposit payments, and some have aired their grievances on social media.

Mike Matsos, a hotel worker in Birmingham, Alabama, who expected to be paid Thursday, said that as of early Saturday morning, Capital One still had not processed his paycheck, which he said had led him to withdraw money from his savings. account to buy groceries.

He said Capital One did not provide a timeline for a resolution, which left him frustrated.

“If they don’t get it to us in the next few days, I won’t have any savings to draw on and I won’t be able to pay any bills,” said Mr. Matsos, 26. Later that day, he said he had access to his salary.

Capital One, which has more than 100 million customers, said it was working to restore access to everyone affected. The number of customers affected was not immediately specified.

“We completely understand your frustration here and we hope that services will gradually begin to return to normal throughout the day and that the majority of issues will be resolved by tomorrow morning,” assured Thursday the customer service account of the company to users.

On Friday, the company said the disruption was not “related to fraudulent activity or the work of malicious actors attempting to access our systems,” adding: “Your funds are safe and will accurately indicate when the issue technical will be resolved. »

These problems came the same week that federal regulators filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that Capital One deliberately underpaid savings account interest even as rates rose.

The suit claims the company cost its depositors more than $2 billion.

In an emailed statement Saturday, a Capital One representative said the company had made “substantial progress” in resolving the issues.

“We have restored full account functionality and processed outstanding transactions for most of our customers, and we are completing work to restore full service to all of our customers as soon as possible,” the statement said. “We sincerely apologize to our valued customers.”