Barclays has apologised to customers as an outage of banking services continues for the third day in a row, leaving thousands unable to send or receive money.
Reports of technical issues began pouring in from around the country on Friday and while the UK’s second-largest bank has insisted the problems aren’t linked to a cyber attack, disruption is continuing across its network of over 20 million customers.
Those trying to log on to their mobile banking apps on Sunday morning have been met with the message: “Thank you for bearing with us.”
The disruption, which the bank says primarily involves people seeing an outdated balance with no evidence of newly made or received transactions, is “taking longer than we’d like to fix”, Barclays said.
The apology is likely to be little comfort to families including that of civil servant Paola Mereu, however, who has been left in a tough spot after the IT glitch meant she couldn’t complete a payment on their new home on Friday.
“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,” the 39-year-old, who is now staying with her husband and two young daughters at her mother’s house until the issue resolves, said.
As well as preventing users from making and receiving payments online, the technical problems are also impacting card payments and branch and telephone banking, according to the Barclays status check website.
ATM withdrawals reportedly remain unaffected and Barclays has urged customers to withdraw cash and continue to use their cards to make payments.
The Down Detector outage tracker received thousands of reports of problems with banking services on Friday, which was also payday for many, with 52% of complaints concerning mobile banking.
Friday was also the deadline for self-assessment tax returns, and HMRC said it was “working closely” with Barclays to minimise any impact on those trying to submit the documents during the glitch. Those affected by the outage won’t have to worry about late HMRC payment penalties, as they don’t apply until March 1.
In a statement on Saturday, the bank said it was “extremely sorry” for the “ongoing technical issues”, insisting that no customers who had been impacted would be “left out of pocket”.
“Some may continue to see an outdated balance, and payments made or received may not show,” a spokesperson said. “Customers should not try to make the payment again.
“Customers can use their cards and withdraw cash, use our app and online banking, and as soon as these remaining issues are resolved, we’ll let our customers know.
“We 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 spokesperson for the bank also suggested that those struggling to access funds should seek support from friends and family and, in desperate situations, visit food banks in a post on social media.