When cards, banks or computer systems go down

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So much of daily life now runs through a computer somewhere else: paying for the shopping, getting your wages, booking a GP appointment. Usually it's seamless. Occasionally something breaks, either a technical fault or a deliberate cyber attack, and it's surprisingly disorientating when the card machine just says "declined".

What's happened before

CrowdStrike, July 2024: a faulty software update, not an attack, crashed computers worldwide. Most GP practices in England lost their appointment and records system for part of the day.
Synnovis, June 2024: a ransomware attack on a pathology lab serving south-east London hospitals. Over the following weeks, more than 1,600 planned operations and 10,000 outpatient appointments were postponed.
Barclays, January 2025: an IT failure over the payday weekend (31 January to 2 February) lasted several days, and more than half of online payments failed during it. MPs found that nine big banks and building societies had clocked up at least 803 hours of unplanned IT outages in two years.
M&S and Co-op, spring 2025: cyber attacks halted M&S online orders for about seven weeks, and left some Co-op shops in rural and island areas short of stock.

These things are disruptive and annoying. They're also, so far, temporary. The Government's planning scenario for a major bank cyber attack assumes the bank's systems are down for at least two days, with partial disruption for two more.

Before

Keep some cash at home, in coins and notes, somewhere safe. It's on the official checklist for good reason: it works without power, signal or servers.
Have a second way to pay: a card from a different bank, or a different kind of account.
Keep a written list of your medicines and doses, your GP surgery's phone number and important contacts.
Protect your own accounts: turn on two-step verification (or passkeys) for your email and bank, keep devices updated and back up your photos.
Know how to reach your bank: use the number on the back of your card.

How much cash?Use our cash planner to work out a sensible amount for your household, with suggested notes and coins and every price sourced.

During

Check official channels only: your bank's website or app status page, the NHS, or the company's own statement.
Expect scammers. Outages and attacks in the news are followed by fake "refund" texts and calls. Your bank will never ask you to move money to a "safe account". Hang up, wait a few minutes (or use another phone), and call the number on your card, or call 159, a free Stop Scams UK number that connects you safely to most UK banks.
Use cash or your back-up card. Keep receipts of anything that goes wrong.
For health needs, NHS 111 still works, and pharmacies can often help with urgent repeat medicines.
Be kind to shop staff. They didn't break it.

After

Check your statements for duplicate or missing payments, and ask for refunds of any charges caused by the outage. If you think you've been scammed, call your bank straight away and report it to Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud) on 0300 123 2040.

Your 10-minute job: put a modest amount of cash in an envelope at home, and turn on two-step verification for your email. Then see the universal basics.

Official advice

Sources

Be Ready: Cyber incidents. beready.campaign.gov.uk/be-informed-about-hazards/cyber
Cabinet Office, National Risk Register 2025 (cyber and banking risks). www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2025
Sky News, IT outage causing disruption in majority of GP practices in England, 19 Jul 2024. news.sky.com/story/it-outage-causing-disruption-in-majority-of-gp-practices-in-england-13180883
NHS England (London), update on cyber incident clinical impact, 15 Aug 2024. www.england.nhs.uk/london/2024/08/15/update-on-cyber-incident-clinical-impact-in-south-east-london-thursday-15-august
Treasury Committee, More than one month's worth of IT failures at major banks and building societies, 2025. committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/205611/more-than-one-months-worth-of-it-failures-at-majorbanks-and-building-societies-in-the-last-two-years
Reuters, M&S restores click and collect 15 weeks after systems hacked, 11 Aug 2025. www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/britains-ms-restores-click-collect-services-15-weeks-after-systems-hacked-2025-08-11
BBC News, Co-op cyber attack and island stores, May 2025. www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8v821yqm0o
NCSC, advice for you and your family. www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/advice-guidance/you-your-family
Report Fraud. www.reportfraud.police.uk
Stop Scams UK, 159. stopscamsuk.org.uk/159

Last checked 2026-11-01. Facts and figures are linked to their original sources above.