Thousands of St George customers see their money vanish in a flash

Thousands of St George bank customers have been impacted by a system failure which saw money disappear from peoples accounts.

Now some customers have spoken out in the hopes of getting answers.

"It may not mean much to them, but it's our livelihoods," Kevin Milner told A Current Affair.

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Mr Milner said his money vanished in a flash when pending payments were taken out twice.

Within 24 hours, the money was returned but by the next day even more money disappeared.

"The balance was at zero and it was overdrawn," he said.

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"Now our account's sitting at negative $383 … you want to have confidence in any institution you have looking after your money and St George ... they've lost this," Mr Milner said.

Nikki Le Sato is another loyal customer who has been with St George for years.

"I'm missing a total of $570-something dollars ... and this morning I woke up and there was $70-something dollars returned," she said.

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Ms Le Sato said it's been particularly tough because she has been without work throughout the lockdown.

"The money I do have is trying to last us through this lockdown," she said.

After Ms Le Sato realised she wasn't the only one having banking issues she started a Facebook page called Class Action St George Bank.

Now hundreds of people have joined the page.

Tech expert Trevor Long said fixing the problem is a big challenge.

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"They've had a systems failure … essentially that renders the system useless to people because they can't withdraw money from an ATM, let alone shop," he said.

"For a corporate business who looses files or something like that, you can just revert back to a couple of days ago. For a bank you can't do that because you've got transactions between then and now.

"So, they need to manually look at every single account that's effected and work their way backwards."

The Westpac-owned banking giant took to Twitter to acknowledge the glitch.

It told customers resolving the problem is a priority.

However five days later, many say they're running out of patience.

Mum-of-two Jess Fleming said her missing money was for childcare fees.

"We were trying to transfer money, me and my partner, between one another, and it was disappearing into thin air," she said.

Mum-of-five Lori Perkins said she has had to keep her kids home from school because she has no money for petrol.

"I tried to get through (to the bank) all weekend, there was a four to five hour wait time," Ms Perkins said.

"I really wasn't very happy because I know there are thousands of other people across Australia that are going through the same thing … I've had close to $200 (lost) this week, and my partner who is also with St George has lost $400," Ms Perkins said.

She said the bank has now left her with just $100 for the week.

"I was crying on the phone... I have a four-week-old baby, how is someone meant to live on a $100 a week?" Ms Perkins said.

Mr Long said the only thing customers can do to prevent something like this from becoming an issue is to "hold multiple bank accounts with different banks".

"So, if something goes wrong with one bank, you've got some money to access at another bank".

But Ms Le Sato said she has a message to St George bank: "Tell us where our money is, give it back".

Statement by St George Chief Customer Engagement Officer, Ross Miller:

Media statement

We want to say sorry to our customers who've been impacted by technical issues with their banking in recent days. We understand how frustrating it has been and want our customers to know we will put things right.

We are contacting impacted customers and refunding any bank fees they may have been charged because of this issue. We will also support customers on a one-on-one basis to talk through any other issues they may have. Again, we apologise and thank our customers for their patience.

More information

We have experienced two separate technical issues and while both were resolved on Sunday some impacted transactions made prior to this date are still to be processed.

We are now processing refunds for any overdrawn fees and any interest charges from incorrect balances that were incurred as a result of this issue.

We will refund fees and charges for the period from Sunday 22 August 2021 and will continue until all transactions associated with this issue have been processed. It may take a few more days for the customer's account balance to reflect their correct transaction history.

We are contacting customers who have been financially impacted regarding their refunds and making a $50 payment to their account.