Services are now back up and running and the bank has apologised for the technical glitch, which saw payments delayed and outdated balances displayed when customers checked their accounts.
Barclays said the fault was a “technical issue” rather than due to a cyber attack or any malicious activity.
The outage came at an inconvenient time for many Barclays customers. Friday was the first payday of 2025 for the majority of workers, while thousands of people were due to pay tax bills by the 31 January deadline. Other Barclays customers suffered delays in property purchases, as they were not able to send funds to their solicitors.
Barclays has promised to put all customers back in their original financial position if they were financially impacted due to the problems.
Online and mobile banking now working
In a statement issued on Sunday evening, Barclays said: “You may have seen in the news that there were issues with some of our services. Everything is now working as it should be.
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“Our teams are very busy because lots of customers are getting in touch at the moment. To save you waiting, please use our app, online banking and automated telephone service, if at all possible.”
Customers still having issues or who have been left out of pocket by the outage were warned that Barclays’ online chat and telephone banking services could have long wait times.
No HMRC fines for affected customers
Customers affected by the outage have been reassured that they will not face fines from HMRC if the glitch meant they were unable to pay their tax bill before the deadline at midnight on 31 January. Barclays said it spoke to HMRC and advised it of its issues.
A statement from the bank said: “You will not get charged the late penalty as they do not get applied until 1 March. We will ensure no customer is left out of pocket.”
Be vigilant
Barclays also warned customers to watch out for scammers in the coming days, as fraudsters often use times like this to send phishing messages.
The bank reiterated that it would never ask customers for account details or to click on any links in a text message, and advised them against sharing any personal information.
