People with Barclays accounts were unable to access their funds or use online banking due to a technical issue over the weekend – the bank has now apologised
Barclays Bank has issued an apology to its customers following a technical glitch that disrupted services and payments over the weekend. The bank confirmed that the issue has now been resolved, and any payments delayed due to the IT problem have been processed.
Barclays had previously stated that affected customers were seeing outdated balances and their payments were not being displayed. After outrage over the outage, the bank has said: “We are very sorry for any disruption and will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket.”
Computer systems at the huge high street bank were crippled for days due to an IT failure, with officials confirming it was not related to a cyber attack. The downtime caused massive inconvenience for customers, disrupting tax returns, bill payments, and other critical services for its millions of customers.
A spokesperson for Barclays said: “The technical issue impacting our customers on Friday and Saturday has been resolved and delayed payments processed. Customers can use our app, bank online, call us, use their cards and withdraw cash.”
With some people unable to access their funds for days, the UK’s most popular bank is now attempting to correct any issues faced by their 20 million customers. “We are working on bringing balances up to date for some of our customers and addressing any outstanding issues,” Barclays admitted.
They added: “We are keeping our call centres open for longer this weekend and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable.”
The banking giant has said that the outage was due to a technical issue and was not believed to be a cyber attack, reports the Express.
Customers affected by the Barclays Bank outage, which began on Friday, have been reassured that they will not face fines from HMRC if the IT glitch meant they were unable to pay their tax bill before the deadline, set for January 31 at midnight.
Brits breathed a sigh of relief on January 31 as the first payday since Christmas Day arrived, but the stress didn’t subside for hundreds of Barclays customers due to an IT meltdown. The technical issue persisted into Saturday afternoon, leaving many account holders still unable to access their funds, make, or receive payments.
In a rare gesture of leniency, HMRC announced that those affected by the outage who missed the midnight deadline for self-assessment tax returns would not face a £100 fine. One Barclays customer, civil servant Paola Mereu, 39, reportedly found herself in dire straits when the bank’s technical issues caused her house purchase payment to fail, leaving her family temporarily homeless.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she recounted: “We drove down to (West Sussex on Friday) and we had all our things in a moving van and were waiting outside and unfortunately, around one o’clock, my solicitor calls and says ‘Barclays is having some issues and we are unable to complete the sale’.
“So we sold our house – we had the money from that – but we were unable to complete the other part of the sale, so we are essentially homeless.”
With their belongings stuck in a moving van parked on a driveway, Mrs. Mereu and her family were forced to find temporary accommodation with her mother in London. Barclays has advised customers to contact the bank directly if they believe they have a compensation claim.
