Barclays App failure leaves bank clients frustrated and out of pocket
For a couple of days from 31 January 2025 many of Barclays customers had trouble making and receiving payments on the bank’s app. See this BBC News report: Barclays customers face second day of issues after IT outage.
The bank received a huge amount of criticism across social media. Its customers incurred numerous problems, they didn’t receive wages, couldn’t move house and couldn’t pay bills. Many of them incurred costs as a result. But it wasn’t just this for which Barclays received criticism.
Barclays suggest using a foodbank
The bank’s social media team posted links to the Trussell Trust and suggested customers contacted friends and family for money help.
It’s not the first time Barclays have suggested customers use a foodbank. In a notorious case Bank Account Blocked by Barclays and the horrors of customer service, the bank blocked a vulnerable person from accessing her money for 6 weeks. It suggested she go to a foodbank, so I got involved. Aside from it being wholly inappropriate to suggest someone visit a foodbank, a bank is not a valid “referrer”, so you couldn’t go to one anyway!
I asked Barclays to provide a statement regarding the appropriateness of staff referring customers to foodbanks. It would only provide a standard statement and no further reply.
I asked the FCA to comment on this. It would not provide a statement regarding the foodbank suggestion, but said:
Under the Consumer Duty, firms must act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers. Among other requirements, they must regularly monitor the outcomes their customers receive and, where they identify poor outcomes, they must take appropriate action to address the situation.”
I would say that was a clear breach.
Still no reason given for Barclays outage
Barclays refused to tell me when the issue started and ended or how many customers it believes were affected.
James Bore, a chartered security professional, founder of Bores.com and author of The Cyber Circuit: A Collection of Articles on Cyber and Information Security from Circuit Magazine, says:
With the lack of communication while an outage lasted two days, it’s unsurprising that people speculated on causes – ranging from cyber security incidents to someone unplugging a server (as happened with BA a few years ago). When handling incidents, organisations really need to be as transparent as possible about causes – we’re now being told that it was due to a ‘technical issue’, which gives about as much information as saying that ‘aliens built the pyramids’.
For what it’s worth, a technical issue is a very plausible cause of an outage that delayed people paying HMRC, may have disrupted house moves, and caused significant distress – but it really doesn’t give much information on what happened, or how similar unspecified ‘technical issues’ will be avoided in future – which is something we as customers should be able to expect.”
Consumer rights for those affected by Barclays issue
In short, the Bank must put you back into the position you were in before the problems arose. So, any extra charges you incurred because you were unable to make payments or transfers etc. Barclays must pay for. What is less clear is whether the bank should pay for stress, distress and inconvenience. In reality, this usually comes down to each individual case.
In response to my videos on Tiktok and Instagram, a number of people claimed that they had received various sums of money. Some were highly unlikely, as a few didn’t even provide evidence, so I tried to get some clarity from Barclays. However, they refused to answer this or whether they had made payments in excess of £100.
@thecomplainingcow How to get your money back from Barclays if you are out of pocket with fees etc. #barclays #Bank #Compensation #Refunds #BankingApp
Non-Barclays customer affected
Many people were not paid their wages. It was unclear whether Barclays would provide redress for these people who were not their customers. When I asked for advice to give consumers it again refused to provide any guidance. Employees are left in limbo not knowing if they should claim from their employer and employers do not know if they should claim. In addition to this, consumers affected might then need to disclose personal information to their employer.
Although Barclays refused to help those affected in this way, the FCA provided guidance. It said that to be eligible to complain under its rules, the person must have a relationship with the respondent firm (see FCA Handbook – DISP 2.7.6 (1)), e.g. they could be a customer of the bank being complained about. So, if the employee banks with a different bank to the employer but received their wages late, they should speak to their employer in the first instance. The employer may be able to complain to their own bank if they meet the eligibility criteria in the FCA Handbook under Dispute Resolution (DISP).
Barclays breach of FCA rules
The FCA said that it could not specifically comment on individual firms, but that it considers all the information it receives. With any major incident, such as an IT outage, it engages with the company both during and after the event to understand how it handled the incident end-to-end. This includes a consideration of customer engagement and communications, and it would expect firms to conduct a full “lessons learned” exercise. I will therefore be sharing this article with the FCA, showing how Barclays was largely unhelpful and refused to provide guidance to its customers, even via someone who was trying to assist.
Barclays response regarding the app issue
I could only obtain a standard Barclays statement, provided to the press.
A Barclays spokesperson said:
The technical issue impacting our customers on Friday [31 January 2025] and over the weekend 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. Our call centres and branches are open and we will be proactively contacting customers who may be vulnerable.”
The future for Barclays
In response to the outage and Barclays appalling handling of the issue, one customer suggested people switched banks. I spoke about this on social media and a number of people said they would be leaving Barclays as a direct result of the outage and the bank’s poor handling of it.
This demonstrates how customers will often accept difficulties when they happen but they won’t tolerate poor service and lack of communication.
@thecomplainingcow Make sure you are not left out of pocket and make money when you switch. #Barclays #Switching #MoneyTipsAndTricks #MoneyHacks #refunds
The cost of compensation
Sky reports Millions in compensation expected for customers hit by Barclays outages
Barclays is expected to pay the largest amount of compensation of any bank in the last two years. More reports of fraud are expected, the bank said, as it saw “some instances” where people attempted to take advantage of the incident.”
More problems for Barclays customers
Just over a month later on 08 March 2025 Barclays online banking system went down again. Barclays banking app goes down with users unable to access funds. In typical Barclays poor customer service the FAQ regarding the outage on 31 January has at the point of publishing not been updated!
@thecomplainingcow Barclays failing to test their software? Barclays website outage phone customers again. #Bank #Outage #Banks #Compensation #personalfinance
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