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Topics: Money, Cost of Living, UK News, News
Rhianna Benson
For millions of working Brits today marks the long-awaited payday, but while it's supposed to be a relief for many employees, thousands of UK bank customers have instead been left unable to access their funds due to outages.
Several high street firms have received countless complaints from customers who have been unable to operate payments, many having taken to social media to be sure they're not the only customers affected.
Among the firms believed to be affected are HSBC, Nationwide, Barclays and Virgin Money.
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"Currently unable to make a payment from my Barclays account using the direct link function on MBNA app," one explained online. "Not had a problem before. Please advise what might be wrong. Tried on and off wifi. Same issue."
Another wrote to their bank on Twitter: "Hi there, my monthly salary has not been paid into my Nationwide current account today, despite being paid out from my employer's account. Is this a general problem which Nationwide are experiencing today?"
Others have made the point that the service error means that they're unable to pay their bills, which could in turn result in a fine or reprimand of some kind.
"My bills are bounding and I can't pay for a train ticket I need in the next hour," one customer hit out.
Another angry banker asked online: "how long till banking is back on? I’ve transferred money into my account to pay bills and it isn’t showing, I’m gonna probably get additional charges because of this ? What’s going on pls"
Virgin Money and Nationwide both issued apologies to their customers earlier this morning, with HSBC and Barclays being the latest to address the issue.
"We’re really sorry that some customers are having issues accessing personal online and mobile banking," HSBC UK said on its website's service page.
"Our IT teams are working hard to get these services back to normal. You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS."
Nationwide also told its customers it was 'aware there is a delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today'.
"These payments are being processed, and will be paid into your account today. Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing."
Meanwhile, Barclays said it was aware of the issue and the team is 'doing everything they can' to get the 'faster payment system' back up and running.
Analytical site DownDetector reported this morning that an excess of more than 7,000 problems were reported before 9.00am today.