A HOST of high street banks were hit by a major outage today leaving thousands of customers locked out of accounts.
Lloyds Bank, Halifax, First Direct and Nationwide were among the banks majorly disrupted.
Thousands of customers were reporting issues at the outage's peak, according to Downdetector.
The vast majority of users were having issues accessing their mobile or online banking while others couldn't make payments or view their account balances on what was payday for many.
Customers started reporting problems with their online banking around 7am.
At the peak of the outage, almost 4,000 Lloyds customers were affected.
While over 4,000 Halifax, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, customers said they were struggling to access their accounts.
More than 830 Nationwide customers were flagging problems with their mobile, online banking and viewing account balances.
Thousands of TSB and Co-operative Bank and Bank of Scotland customers reported glitches on Downdetector as well.
First Direct was also hit by technical issues earlier this morning but has since resolved them.
Customers took to X, formerly Twitter, fuming about the outage.
One Lloyds customer said: "I've worked two long weeks to be paid today and now I can't access my accounts on the app or desktop site.
"It is imperative this is resolved IMMEDIATELY."
A Halifax customer fumed: "I can't get in the app!!"
Meanwhile, someone who banks with TSB added: "Can't get into the TSB app or website since 7.30am."
Another added: "Please fix this asap! It is payday for many and we have important payments due."
One angry First Direct customer said: "Being told on your chat to make cash payments, that it may be several hours.
"I can’t make cash payments for what I need to pay. Please get this resolved."
Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, TSB and Co-operative Bank all said the technical issues had been resolved on their side.
It comes just weeks after Barclays was hit by a major outage which left some customers locked out of their accounts for days.
The bank said the outage was caused by a technical issue and not related to a cyber attack or any malicious activity.
But the glitch left customers fuming with many left locked out of accounts around pay day and one left homeless.
Lloyds Banking Group, which owns Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, was also hit by an outage earlier this month.
Hundreds of customers reported issues with missing payments and wages.
Can I claim compensation for an outage?
Banks don't have to pay out compensation to customers if there's been an outage or if they've experienced technical issues.
But you might be entitled to some money back depending on how much the disruption affected you as a consumer.
To make a claim, you have to present evidence of how the outage negatively affected you, including any extra costs incurred.
This might be because you were charged for making a late payment for example.
You should make a note of when you were unable to access the services and also the names of the people you spoke to at the company who suffered the outage.
You can usually find out more details about how to complain to your bank on its website.
If your bank doesn't resolve your complaint, you can take your case up with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
It is an independent body which will resolve any issues based on what it thinks is "fair and reasonable" depending on the circumstances of the case.
The service can resolve your issue over the phone, by email or post depending on what best suits you.
The Sun has asked the banks if customers will receive compensation due to the outage and we will update this story when we've heard back.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
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