How to protect yourself against future bank IT disasters

Three steps to take, whatever bank you’re with.

As I wrote this week, the TSB online banking meltdown has been a disaster for many of the bank’s customers. But though this has been ridiculously severe, it’s not the first time IT systems have failed at one of the big banks.

And as we see more branches close every month, we’re even more reliant on online and app banking. So when they fail, it’s bad news for us.

You can’t protect yourself fully against this type of thing, but there are few precautions you can take that I’d recommend. Watch my video below for more, or keep reading further down the page.

My three tips to limit the impact of bank IT crashes

1. Set up Direct Debits for your bills so even if you can’t get into online banking any regular payments should still be made
2. Consider switching bank to one which has a physical branch you can visit if you need to. This has been made a lot harder with so many shutting their doors.
3. Open up a second bank account at a different bank and keep some money there. This way you’ll at least be able to access some cash in the event of an IT failure.