Capital One: Service Back After Outage Locks Out Thousands

Capital One says it has restored service after a days-long outage locked thousands of customers from their accounts.

“Account functionality for all customers is now restored,” the bank holding company wrote in a post Sunday (Jan. 19) on X. “We sincerely apologize for how frustrating this experience has been. We are committed to making it right. We encourage customers to check their accounts online and contact us for any support.”

The trouble began last week when a power outage at a third-party vendor — FIS Global — impacted some customers’ ability to access Capital One services such as payment processing, deposits and banking.

A report by CNN notes that users began reporting problems starting Thursday (Jan. 16) and into Friday (Jan. 19), with the company’s X account being flooded by complaints — many using harsh language — from customers who weren’t able to pay bills or access funds.

Last week also saw an outage at Citibank, with that company’s mobile app shutting down. Customers also reported technical issues last week related to fraud alerts and long wait times for customer calls to its fraud department. Citibank resolved the issue by Thursday morning.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that service interruptions such as these cost Global 2000 companies an estimated $400 billion each year.

“The financial toll is more significant for smaller businesses, where downtime can lead to customer attrition and repair costs that may include brand trust campaigns,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.

Open payments platforms, that report added, help reduce these risks by rerouting transactions through alternative gateways, making sure that businesses stay in operation even in the face of substantial technical failures.

The outage at Capital One wasn’t the only piece of bad news for the company last week. On Tuesday (Jan. 14), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Capital One, alleging that the bank promoted a savings account as offering one of the nation’s “highest” interest rates while offering another that paid out rates that were as much as 14 times higher.

“The CFPB is suing Capital One for cheating families out of billions of dollars on their savings accounts,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a news release. “Banks should not be baiting people with promises they can’t live up to.”

Reached for comments by PYMNTS, Capital One provided a statement saying it “strongly” disagrees with the CFPB’s claims and will “vigorously defend” itself in court.