Cloud outage in London: protecting your payments when an online bank goes down

On October 20, 2026, a Google Cloud outage in London blocked cards, transfers and apps at several British banks, Revolut among them. Customers' money was never at stake: what disappeared for hours was access. This article helps you understand what happened, build a backup payment plan, and know how to react when your online bank's app stops responding.

What happened on October 20, 2026

The incident began at 6:08 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, and was largely resolved around 12:01 p.m. GMT^[1]. It originated in Google Cloud's europe-west2 region, which corresponds to London. Google spoke of an outage in the europe-west2-b zone, "due to an electrical event"^[1].

At Revolut, card payments, transfers, ATM withdrawals, currency exchange and trading were unavailable^[2]. Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and HSBC also reported disruptions^[3]. Lloyds noted that its customers could log into the app normally, but that some online services were affected^[2].

The outage was centered in London, but its effects could extend beyond the UK: apps in other countries that rely on London-based infrastructure could be affected^[4]. This is why some customers found themselves blocked far from London.

Recovery was gradual. According to Le Figaro, around 8 p.m. (time zone not specified), Revolut confirmed its services were operational again^[5]. Incidents of this kind are not isolated: exactly one year earlier, an outage at AWS's largest cloud region had taken more than 1,000 websites offline, including British banks, for several hours^[3].

A technical outage is not bankruptcy: what it means for your money

During the outage, Revolut stated that the money and data of all its customers were safe^[2]. On its return, the bank specified that funds and data had never been compromised at any point^[5]. An outage blocks access to your money, not the money itself.

This should not be confused with a bank failure. The UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) steps in when an institution has ceased trading and cannot pay its debts^[6].

It protects up to £120,000 per eligible person with authorized banks, building societies and credit unions in the UK^[6]. This limit was raised to this level on December 1, 2025^[6]. A few hours of IT downtime does not fall under this framework.

The practical consequence is simple: if your money is protected but inaccessible, what protects you on the day of an outage is a second way to access it.

Why a single cloud outage can block everything

Cloud infrastructure is concentrated in very few hands. According to a cybersecurity professor quoted by AFP, only three "hyperscalers" (Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services) have the infrastructure needed to handle the massive volumes of data businesses require in the UK^[1]. These data centers remain "vulnerable to local infrastructure failures," which can have significant domino effects^[1].

On paper, a cloud region is divided into several independent zones precisely so that a local failure does not bring down an entire service^[7]. That day, however, an incident originating in a single London zone was enough to disrupt banks, but also Royal Mail or Rightmove^[5].

For a digital nomad or expatriate, the risk is concrete: a bank whose infrastructure depends on the affected region can block its customers wherever they are. Revolut, for example, saw cards blocked as far away as France^[7].

British regulators are monitoring this risk. The Financial Conduct Authority, the Bank of England and the Prudential Regulation Authority were in contact with Google, and have authority over its cloud activities under the "critical third parties" regime^[8]. They can require an independent review or restrict a critical third party's work with financial institutions when deemed necessary^[8].

Building your backup payment plan

The principle: no single payment method should be your only one. When a card is declined at the checkout, a card from another bank or a little cash remain the most reliable backup plan^[7]. In practice:

• Keep at least one card issued by a bank other than your main neobank: if the first one is knocked out by an outage, the second has every chance of working.
• Keep some cash, in the currency of the country you are in, to get by for a few hours or a day.
• Do not keep all your everyday money with a single online bank: spread it across at least two institutions.
• Check that your backup card is activated and that you remember its PIN before you need it.

A bank that concentrates the entire customer relationship in a single app must be able to survive a provider's bad morning^[7]. It is up to you to apply the same logic to your own setup: a provider's outage should not become your personal outage.

What to do when the app is unavailable

• First check whether the outage is widespread: the Downdetector platform records user reports, and more than 1,500 reports concerning Revolut had been logged as early as 9 a.m. on October 20^[5].
• Check your bank's announcements: Revolut posted the status of its services on its website during the incident^[2].
• Switch to your backup card or backup account rather than insisting on the app.
• Stay calm: during this incident, Revolut stated that its customers' money and data were safe^[2].
• Keep screenshots of errors, receipts and proof of any expenses incurred: they will be useful if you need to ask for a goodwill gesture or file a complaint.

A testimony gathered by the BBC shows why this evidence matters: a customer was unable to see a transaction from a relative, and the app's assistant replied that no incoming transaction was pending^[3]. An app's response during an outage is not a reliable reflection of your account's status.

Pitfalls, scams and points of vigilance

An outage does not automatically entitle you to a refund. A British HMRC tax manual, which deals with compensation paid by banks, classifies expenses linked to electronic system failures among "excluded expenses", which does not define your rights as a customer; its example is that of a faulty online banking platform whose customers could not access their accounts for 48 hours^[9]. The regulator may nevertheless ask a bank to compensate affected customers^[9], but do not count on it: document what the outage cost you.

If you are with a French bank or pay with a French card, two rules of the French public service on stolen cards are useful to know, without applying as such to a British bank:

• A card block is final: you cannot ask for it to be reactivated after blocking it, even if you find it again later^[10].
• A fraudulent transaction older than 13 months cannot be refunded, and the bank may refuse a refund if you block the card late^[10].

In all cases, check with your bank its blocking deadlines and its emergency number before you leave: some banks require a special number to be called from abroad^[10].

Redress and protection: what the authorities provide

In the United Kingdom, the authorities reacted to the incident. The chair of the House of Commons Treasury Committee wrote to the Governor of the Bank of England and the Chief Executive of the FCA asking them to explain how they intend to strengthen the resilience of the financial system, and raised the idea of compensating customers who had difficulty accessing their banking services^[8]. At this stage, this is a request for explanations, not a right to compensation.

If your card is stolen or a payment is fraudulent, the procedure described by the French public service is as follows: block the card with your bank, file a police report and keep the receipt (récépissé), which proves the complaint was registered and can be sent to your bank to request a refund^[10]. If you do not obtain a refund, you can contact the banking ombudsman, and then the courts if the dispute persists^[10]. In France, this is the bank's ombudsman (médiateur de la banque); elsewhere, the equivalent body in your country of banking residence.

Checklist: your plan B in five steps

• Open or keep an account and a card with a second institution, independent of your main neobank.
• Carry some cash in the local currency.
• Spread your everyday money across at least two banks.
• Find in advance the status page and emergency number of each of your banks.
• In case of an outage, switch to your backup card and keep screenshots, receipts and proof of any fees.