NYDailyNews

Citibank Computer Crash Knocks Out 2,000 ATMs

By MAKI BECKER and OWEN MORITZ Daily News Staff Writers

housands of Citibank customers were left frustrated and broke after the bank's nationwide network of 2,000 ATMs crashed yesterday afternoon.

The outage, which was caused by an internal software problem, lasted about four hours, bank officials said.

About 2 million U.S. households hold accounts at Citibank, the nation's biggest bank.

Citibank spokesman Mark Rodgers said the bank "will waive any fees that our customers incur," such as fees charged at alternate ATM locations.

That was little consolation to customers such as Michael Schwartz, a Brooklyn accountant.

"It's a total meltdown," said Schwartz, who realized something was wrong when he tried to use his Citibank ATM card to pay for a money order at a post office.

His card couldn't be processed. "They said it's not being declined and it's not being approved," Schwartz said.

Schwartz said he tried to get cash from his Citibank account at a Fleet Bank teller machine, but that didn't work either.

"I have a 2-year-old daughter. Theoretically, I can't even buy milk for her," Schwartz said. "I'm lucky I have another credit card. It's not frustrating. It's frightening."

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001

Answers

Pity I can't link to the Twilight Zone theme here.

"It's frightening."

LOL

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001