Tesco Bank to complete hack refunds for customers on Tuesday

Tesco Bank has pledged to reimburse by Tuesday night all customers who lost out following a weekend cyber heist on current accounts.

The bank temporarily suspended all online transactions following the weekend hacking attack which affected thousands of people - with at least 20,000 understood to have fallen victim to thefts from their balances.

Some customers tweeted that hundreds of pounds had disappeared from their accounts, with one woman saying the problems meant she would be "unable to feed my kids in school tomorrow".

Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) executive Benny Higgins confirmed on Monday that some current accounts were subjected to "online criminal activity", with "some cases" resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently.

He said the bank was working with the authorities to identify those responsible - denying any suggestion that Tesco Bank had failed to keep pace in its digital security.

"We apologise for the worry and inconvenience that this has caused for customers, and can only stress that we are taking every step to protect our customers' accounts," he said.

"That is why, as a precautionary measure, we have taken the decision today to temporarily stop online transactions from current accounts."

He said customers would still be able to use their cards for cash withdrawals and chip and pin payments and that all existing bill payments and direct debits would continue as normal.

Mr Higgins told Sky News: "We live in an age where these kind of attacks, whilst they are not common, they do happen.

"Regardless of how much one invests in prevention, one is always ultimately vulnerable. It is impossible to be impregnable.

"We believe we have invested appropriately and the most important thing is that we are responding as well as possible."

Many customers posted on the Tesco Bank website and social media saying they were angry with the length of time they were kept waiting when they called about their concerns.

"Now (NYSE: DNOW - news) on my second attempt at contact by phone, 10 minutes was unacceptable but this time 54 minutes and counting is a serious failure and almost unbelievable," spidey500 wrote.

"Attempting to log any sort of complaint is virtually impossible despite the platitudes on the main website about making it easy to complain."

Andyg wrote: "At least you now acknowledge there is a problem.

"I followed your instructions and after 3 hours was able to speak to someone ... who wasn't able to help and just took my name and phone number for someone to call back. No idea when that will be."

Another customer, Inchindown, wrote: "Because of your failure to be open about this, I have moved all of the money in my Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) current account to another bank. It will remain there until you sort this out."

Fashion blogger Sam Squire told Sky News: "I was told by text but not until yesterday late afternoon that my account has been frozen.

"They said that they managed to stop the transactions on my accounts so I can't see any money missing at the moment but they said they can't guarantee the transactions won't go through so my account is still frozen and if any transactions go out they will refund the full amount."

He earlier tweeted: "Love that Tesco Bank haven't text me until now to let me know there's been fraud on my account ... it's a bit late now".

Tesco Bank, which has been wholly owned by Tesco PLC since 2008, has 7.8 million customer accounts.