Citizens Bank Customers Encounter Problems

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Hundreds of thousands of Citizens Bank customers couldn't do any banking.

For hours, the bank's computer system wouldn't let people bank online or even get cash from an ATM.

The problems began early Friday morning. In some locations, there were problems with the phone system and ATMs, but everyone had problems with online banking.

Citizens has 1,500 banks in 12 states with 228 branches in western Pennsylvania.

Some didn't know whether to write checks, since in the past they couldn't be sure if the money they thought was there really was.

Others didn't know if their direct deposits had made it, which is not a good thing.

"Might spend a little bit more than I should have – just not knowing can be hard," Cray Thomas, a Citizens customer, said.

"I didn't get my money from my job, so now my bills might not be paid on time and they better not charge me an overdraft fee because it was supposed to be in there last night," Ramona Jewell, another customer, said.

Just two weeks ago, Bank of America's online system was shut down for six days.

It's believed to be computer problems in both cases – not problems with hackers.

Citizens online banking service appeared to be working by Friday afternoon.

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