Barclays apologises for IT glitch that 'left people homeless' and says services are back to normal

2 February 2025, 10:05 | Updated: 2 February 2025, 10:24

Barclays has apologised for a major IT failure which left hundreds of people unable to access their money, and said services are now back to normal.

Barclays has apologised to customers after technical problems caused disruption to services and payments over the weekend.

The bank said the issue had been resolved on Sunday morning and delayed payments processed.

Hundreds of people had been affected by the the outage which began on Friday, and were left unable to access their money or make and receive payments.

The glitch coincided with payday for many workers and the deadline for self-assessment tax returns.

It led to many queues outside ATMs as people waited to get their money out, and left one customer 'homeless' after they sold their house and weren't able to complete a payment for their new house.

On Sunday morning, 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.

While the bank has apologised for the issue, some customers were angered by their handling of the situation.

When one X user posted that her household 'has no access to money,' the Barclays UK Help account responded by asking "Are there any friends or family who can offer support?"

When the woman said she didn't have any family or friends she can turn to and said the reply was 'so triggering', the help account posted some links to a charity that runs food banks and Citizens Advice.

Customers were infuriated by the response, which essentially asked them to turn to friends, family or food banks for help.

Social media users criticised the bank for their 'insensitive' responses, as they asked a woman with a baby to turn to someone else for money.

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The woman tweeted: :"How much longer will this be it’s left me with nothing and Before you say I can use my card and get cash I have no card I’m waiting for a new one after losing mine!!

"So I now have a newborn and 2 other children that I needed shopping for today this has been on going since 10am!"

The bank's response triggered a wave of angry customers in the same situation, or who sympathised with the woman.

The PA news agency understands the outage was caused by a technical issue and is not believed to be related to a cyber attack.

Barclays had previously said affected customers could see an outdated balance with payments made or received not showing.

The company's status check website listed the Barclays and Barclaycard apps, online banking and services, cards, payments and transfers, branches and telephone banking as areas disrupted by the problem.

Outage tracker Down Detector 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.

HMRC said it was "working closely" with Barclays to minimise any impact on those submitting their self-assessments and that HMRC services are "working as normal".