Furious HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Money customers are left unable to pay bills as IT glitch means salaries aren’t in accounts

• Have YOU been affected by the outage? Please email: [email protected] 

Thousands of Britons faced problems paying bills and accessing their bank accounts today as an IT glitch hit a system operating payments between people and firms.

The UK’s biggest banks were hit by the problem affecting digital banking, leaving customers unable to send and receive money on what is commonly payday.

Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays and Virgin Money were among the firms apologising to people over the issues, while Lloyds customers also reported problems.

Some customers claimed salaries had yet not been paid in and they were unable to pay bills as they found themselves locked out of online banking apps.

Customers were left furious and those banking with HSBC said they should be paid £100 compensation. Some pointed out how they were unable to visit their local branch because it had closed, while others said they had to urgently pay their bills.

The system powers online banking by enabling people to send money digitally, or via phone or in a branch, between banks and building societies who use it. Payments up to a certain limit usually arrive within seconds, although can take up to two hours.

HSBC said there had been a ‘separate payments issue affecting multiple banks’, while Nationwide blamed a ‘third-party payments issue’ for the glitches.

Among those angry about the outage was Paul McNiffe from Mid Wales, who tweeted HSBC to say: ‘This is getting to be ridiculous. Third time in so many months.

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‘I just got paid and need to sort transfers out. How can I do this when this is happening. How long is the app going to be down?’

Another customer, Sam Simmonds, said: ‘You closed pretty much 90 per cent of all the local branches too forcing the nation online. Yet this tech hitch keeps happening. Sort it out.’

And Alison Brown, from Pontarddulais near Swansea, said: ‘Any ETA as to how long this will take to resolve?

‘As many have already said, we have been forced to conduct our business online as our local branches are non existent so we are reliant on your online services.’

HSBC UK said on the service status page of its website: ‘We’re really sorry that some customers are having issues accessing personal online and mobile banking.’

‘Our IT teams are working hard to get these services back to normal. You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS.’

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But disgruntled customers complained that they were unable to access their bank accounts online or on their mobile app.

Some pointed out that it was payday for them and they needed to access money to pay bills.

According to the website DownDetector, more than 7,000 problems were reported relating to HSBC at about 8.45am.

HSBC posted on X that customers sending payments may experience a slow response or see a failure notice as a result of the industry-wide problems.

It urged people to check with the recipient or view their recent transactions notifications before attempting to send the payment again.

The bank also confirmed that its online banking and mobile app were back up and running after some customers were left locked out during the morning.

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DownDetector also showed a spike in reports of outages for high street bank Virgin Money and building society Nationwide this morning.

Nationwide replied to a string of customers on X complaining that they had not received their wages into their accounts.

‘This has happened several times before’, one user complained, while another said it was ‘twice now in the past couple of months’ that they had experienced a delay.

Nationwide said it was ‘aware there is a delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today’.

It added: ‘These payments are being processed, and will be paid into your account today. Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing.’

A spokeswoman for Nationwide then said the issue had ‘unfortunately delayed a small number of payments, which we expect will be processed and paid later today’.

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It stressed that the ‘overwhelming majority of payments were processed as normal’, with all other services working fine.

Virgin Money said on X that it was ‘aware of intermittent issues with accessing online banking and our app, which we’re working to resolve as quickly as possible’.

‘Thanks for your patience while we restore the service.’

Virgin Money also posted on X: ‘Like other banks, we’re working hard to process the backlog of payments delayed as quickly as possible, and will update you as soon as we can.’

It also urged customers not to send payments again if they received an error message but can see the payment has reduced the balance in their account.

Another post alerted customers to ‘delays to payments both in and out of their Virgin Money account’.

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Barclays said on its status update page: ‘We’re sorry, some other banks are having issues – payments you make to or from them may not arrive as normal. We’re working to fix this.’

Barclays also said it was aware of the issue and the team was ‘doing everything they can’ to get the ‘faster payment system’ back up and running.

Lloyds does not appear to have acknowledged any problems on its social channels, but DownDetector showed outage spikes above the usual baseline.

Last month, occurring on the same date, NatWest experienced an approximately four-hour outage affecting its mobile and online banking services.

Have YOU been affected by the outage? Please email: [email protected]