Major bank with 1.8m customers to axe app in major shake up

A major UK bank with 1.8 million users will be axing its app in just a few days. Last year Sainsbury's Bank was bought by NatWest. Sainsbury's Bank confirmed that all customers will no longer be able to access their accounts from Friday, October 3 at 5 pm.

Users' accounts will automatically be transferred to NatWest between Friday, October 3 and Monday, October 6. Updated terms and conditions will apply from October 3. A Sainsbury's Bank spokesperson said: "There are no immediate changes and nothing customers need to do right now.

"We will continue to keep them informed throughout the transfer process."

All Sainsbury's Bank customers will transfer to NatWest's systems by December.

The High Court approved the move in April, with the ownership of credit cards, loan and savings accounts officially transferred to NatWest on May 1. The transition of these accounts to NatWest's systems will begin in next week and finish by December.

Credit card customers started to receive updates about changes to their accounts in July whilst loans and savings accounts customers were contacted from August.

From September to October, NatWest will provide instructions on the next steps, including how to sign up for its digital banking services.

During that time Sainsbury's Bank will sign off with their customers through the relevant communication channels.

Then, from October onwards, customers will be sent a welcome to NatWest message and their credit card, loan and savings accounts should move across.

Changes to Sainsbury's Bank

Sainsbury's Bank has announced the sale of its travel money, car and home insurance operations as it refocuses on its grocery business. It has transferred its car and home insurance division to Allianz, one of Britain's top general insurers. Customers will be contacted by Allianz around their renewal date.

Those with policies that renew automatically will start moving to different providers from November 2025.

Pet and travel insurance products from Sainsbury's Bank and Argos are not being affected right now.

The supermarket's banking division has also sold off its travel money business to financial services and foreign exchange firm Fexco Group. The supermarket's 220 travel money kiosks will keep running inside shops.

But back in March, Sainsbury's announced it would stop taking applications for savings accounts from both new and existing customers.

In a statement on its website, the bank said: "Thank you for your interest but we are no longer accepting savings applications from new or existing customers. Any savings applications made prior to March 13, 2025 will continue to be processed and completed accordingly."