A major bank has issued an urgent update to its millions of customers as its online banking and app services will be down this weekend. Will you be affected?
Barclays is reminding its customers that its online banking, telephone banking and other services will be offline between certain hours on Sunday, October 26.
This is due to the clocks going back with savers being told to avoid logging on between 1 BST and 2:15 GMT, however certain services will be available.
In a statement, the bank shared: “On Sunday, October 26 between 01:00 BST and 02:15 GMT, you won’t be able to use Online Banking, Telephone Banking or Barclaycard online servicing while we put our clocks back.
A major bank is informing its millions of customers that they ‘won’t be able to use online banking’
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“You’ll still be able to see your balance and recent transactions in the app, but you’ll be unable to view your Barclaycard or Mortgage.
“Any payments made during this time may be delayed – if a payment hasn’t gone through after four hours, please resend it then.
“We’ll add any payments into your account as soon we’re back up and running. You can still use cash machines and pay using your cards, but some payments might be declined.
“For updates on all our services, and to receive a text when we’ve finished our work, tap ‘Help’, then ‘Our service status’.”
Bank apps have been hit by outages in recent months
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PAAccording to Barclays, the financial institution has an estimated 20 million customers which use its services in the UK.
While this interruption to the bank’s services is scheduled and temporary, it comes amid the backdrop of widespread bank app outages over recent months in the UK.
Customers have taken to social media to complain about being unable to make or receive payments as a result of these IT errors.
Over the past year, NatWest, Nationwide Building Society and even Barclays have been impacted by these surprise online banking outages.
in reaction to recent app outages impacting Lloyds Bank and Halifax, Which?’s money editor Jenny Ross Ross broke down the impact on customers.
She shared: “The impact of technical faults like these can’t be underestimated, and this latest issue is particularly concerning coming so soon after Barclay’s service outage this weekend, which left some people struggling to buy food and put house purchases at risk.
“Technical issues like these could be devastating for people who could miss important bill payments, find themselves unable to pay for essential services or risk going overdrawn – issues which could come with knock-on effects like late payment or overdraft penalties, or affect their ability to get credit or borrow money.”
Following a NatWest outage, Ms Ross said: “Banks are encouraging more and more of us to rely on apps to do our essential banking, so when these go down it can be devastating.
Barclays has issued an update to its customers
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GETTYIn the worst cases there’s a risk that impacted NatWest customers may miss important bill payments, find themselves unable to pay for essential services or risk going overdrawn – issues which could come with knock-on effects like late payment or overdraft penalties, or affect their ability to get credit or borrow money.”
Shilpa Doreswamy, Sector Director of Retail Banking Solution, GFT, added: “IT outages highlight a critical problem: many high street banks are hampered by complex legacy tech estate and legacy processes.
“Even minor disruptions can lead to a far-reaching impact, including customer trust. Over a third of Brits are worried about bank IT failures – and they have good reason.
“Aging systems struggle to meet modern digital demands, eroding customer trust. In contrast, neobanks built on advanced cloud native technologies rarely face such disruptions. Business resilience is becoming increasingly critical, and it is imperative for incumbent banks to modernise or risk losing customer confidence.”
