Barclays Outage Explained: Thousands Affected After UK Bank Faces Glitch

New Delhi:

Customers of Barclays, the UK’s second-largest bank, experienced problems in making payments and transfers over a technical glitch that has continued for three days now.

The glitch coincided with payday across the country and created panic among thousands of users. People faced problems accessing the mobile application and online banking facilities. 

When did it start?

The Barclays outage began on Friday, January 31, which was a payday for many in the UK as well as the deadline to file self-assessment tax returns.

Although it is not believed to be a cyber attack, the bank is yet to explain the cause behind the problem. Barclays has also not shared how many people have been affected by the glitch. 

Downdetector, an outage tracking website, on Saturday, showed that close to 5,000 issues were reported with Barclays, which is more than double the number seen on Friday. Around 52% people faced problems with mobile banking, 38% reported problems accessing online banking and 10% had trouble with bill payment.

Why the outage?

According to Barclays’ status update website, several key facilities of the bank still continue to be out of service. These include Barclaycard app, Barclaycard Online Servicing, Barclays app, online banking, telephone banking, payments and transfers.

“This is taking longer than we’d like – thank you for bearing with us,” Barclays said without mentioning when these essential services will be back.

“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,” Barclays added.

The bank has advised customers to remain vigilant as “fraudsters often use times like this to send messages pretending to be Barclays.” 

Impact on customers

One of the largest banks in the country, Barclays takes care of more than 20 million UK retail customers and processes over 40 per cent of the country’s credit and debit card transactions, BBC reported.

Several customers have shared their experiences and talked about how they are unable to do shopping for themselves and their young children.

“You’re quite literally starving people,” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

https://twitter.com/Jade_Marie_1993/status/1885749036944159231?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

One mother shared that she was unable to buy milk for her baby due to the Barclays glitch.

“My four-month-old is out of milk powder and screaming for a feed and I still haven’t been paid. I’ve been in tears for hours,” Sky News quoted her as saying.

A newlywed couple said that they were locked out of their bank accounts during their honeymoon in Australia.

David Marsh from Cumbria shared that he had been a current account holder with Barclays since 1986 and was unable to receive money for his honeymoon into his current account or use his current account to clear credit card dues before departing.

On social media, the bank has even advised some customers facing difficulties to seek support from friends and family or they could get in touch with food banks.

https://twitter.com/BarclaysUKHelp/status/1885402505841987878?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

While several customers stated that they were unable to make their payments to HMRC, a statement from the tax authority said that it was closely working with Barclays to minimise the impact.