Tower Hamlets (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Barclays in Tower Hamlets apologized for weekend service disruption caused by a technical issue. The services were restored today morning.
According to a prior statement from Barclays, impacted clients can see an old balance with no payments made or received.
This 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.We are keeping our call centres open for longer this weekend, and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable.”
This news was also posted on BarclaysUkHelp official handle:
The PA news agency acknowledges that a technical problem, not a cyberattack, was the reason for the outage.
The disruption on Friday fell on both the deadline for self-assessment tax returns and many employees’ paydays.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stated that its services are “operating as normal” and that it was “working closely” with Barclays to minimise any impact on those submitting their self-assessments.
What are the incident details following the Barclays service disruption?
Customers’ ability to monitor updated balances, make payments, and use online banking services was affected by the issues, which started on Friday, February 1, 2025. Many employees’ paydays and the filing deadline for self-assessment taxes fell on the same day as the outage.
Customers complained about not being able to access their money, which resulted in lacking payments and difficulty keeping track of daily spent. Some people experienced serious consequences such as problems with real estate transactions.
Customers were reassured by Barclays that the downtime will not cause any problems with their finances. They promptly contacted those who were at risk and extended call centre hours to help impacted consumers.
On social media, a large number of customers voiced dissatisfaction, pointing out issues such as not being able to buy food or complete transactions.
In response to complaints, Barclays suggested asking friends or family for help and included links to food banks and other services.
What was the response of the customers to this service disruption?
Outage tracker Down Detector reports that thousands of consumers reported problems on Saturday with online banking, mobile banking, and bill payment.
Social media was used by irate customers to voice their displeasure with the incident; one mother claimed she was “embarrassed” to return her food purchase.
“Due to Barclays I’m left without money. Had a food shop due for delivery this morning which now will get cancelled and leave my four kids with no food. It’s a joke as [it is] my money,” one X user claimed.
Another claimed:
“Well I’ve just had to put all my shopping back in Tesco, never been so embarrassed in my life .. as I can’t access my own money.”