Barclays advised one angry customer to contact food banks after an IT glitch prevented people from accessing their accounts.
The outage, which began on Friday – payday for many people across the UK, affected online and mobile banking and continued into a third day as the bank said the issue is “taking longer than we’d like to fix”.
The company’s status check website listed 10 services that were facing issues, with the Barclaycard and Barclays apps, online banking and services, cards, payments and transfers, branches and telephone banking all facing disruption.
In a warning to customers, the bank said that some customers may see an outdated balance and payments made or received may not show.
Barclays apologised to those affected by the outage and insisted it will ensure “no impacted customer is left out of pocket”, adding that it’s keeping its call centres open for longer this weekend and is “proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable”.
Fuming customers have been reaching out to Barclays support on social media as they faced a third day of disruption, with some saying they have been unable to pay their bills, withdraw cash, or buy shopping.
But the bank’s response to complaints has angered some customers, with one X (formerly Twitter) user being advised to contact the Trussell Trust, a charity which runs food banks, after informing Barclays she has “no access to money” and is unable to feed her children.
After being told by the bank that cards and cash machines could still be used as normal, the user wrote: “I cannot use my card or cash machines because I cannot transfer my money out of my savings account! I have NO ACCESS TO MONEY.
“I have ZERO funds available to me, I cannot transfer any money, my husband and I both bank with you so our whole household has no access to money!”
In response the Barclays wrote: “I’m really sorry that the issues we’re facing have left you in this position. Are there any family or friends who can offer support? We’re working to fix this as a priority, please keep checking our service status page, which will be updated as soon as any changes happen.”
The user criticised the response as “so triggering” which later prompted the bank’s X account to share links to the Trussell Trust and Citizens Advice.
Elsewhere, other customers were told to continue checking ‘Barclays service status’ online for updates as the bank worked to fix the issue.
Barclays confirmed on Sunday morning that the IT issue, which is not believed to be related to a cyber attack, has now been resolved and delayed payments have been processed.
A Barclays spokesperson 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. We are working on bringing balances up to date for some of our customers and addressing any outstanding issues.
“We are very sorry for any disruption and will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket. We are keeping our call centres open for longer this weekend and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable.”
A statement on Barclays website on Sunday tells customers “we’re really sorry – we’re still working to fix the issues that started on Friday”.
It adds: “ This is taking longer than we’d like – thank you for bearing with us. You can: Use your cards.
“Some customers may be experiencing issues making payments – we’re working to fix this as soon as we can. Your balance may be incorrect and some payments you made or are expecting to receive may not show.
“Please do not make the payments again. Please bear with us while we correct this. As soon as we have another update, we’ll let you know here.”
Outage tracker Down Detector has received thousands of reports of problems, more than half (52%) of them for issues with mobile banking with 38% for online problems and 10% connected to paying bills.
