Account
holders complain of being unable to withdraw cash or pay for food and petrol in
latest meltdown for high-street banks
 |
| Lloyds and TSB both admitted customers were having problems with debit cards and ATMs. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA |
Customers
vented their anger after Lloyds and TSB became the latest high-street banks to
experience a technological meltdown which led to many people being unable to
withdraw money or use their cards.
Furious
customers complained on Sunday of having to leave shopping behind at
supermarket counters and being unable to pay restaurant bills.
Lloyds said
the problem was affecting debit cards and its internet banking service but not
credit cards, while TSB said some customers were unable to use debit cards or
withdraw money from ATMs.
"Wife's
card declined in Asda had to go get my card from home how embarrassing standing
and waiting #poorbankingservice", said Carl Bullivant on Twitter.
Jess McKell
tweeted at TSB: "not able to buy food this evening, or petrol to get home,
this is ridiculous."
Frank
Nkparu asked: "How a bank that makes hundreds of million pounds in profit
can't have a reliable IT system for customers? @TSB and #Lloyds bank are
#jokers".
The two
banks became separate last year but operate for now under the Lloyds Bank group
banner. The problems come after an estimated 750,000 RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank customers were unable to use their credit and debit cards for three hours
last December.
Paul
Pester, TSB's chief executive, who used Twitter to talk directly to customers
on Sunday evening, said that Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and TSB use the same IT systems.
He told one
customer who complained that there had been no answer on the bank's helpline:
"sorry Craig. At one point we had 300 customers queuing to speak to the
call centre – sorry if you couldn't get through."
TSB said through its group Twitter account: "We're having issues with ATMs and
debit cards at present.
"We're
hoping to have this fixed shortly, apologies for inconvenience caused."
Lloyds
issued a statement by email, saying: "We are aware that some customers are
unable to use their debit cards either to make purchases or to withdraw money
from ATMs. We are working hard to resolve this as swiftly as possible and
apologise for any inconvenience caused."
No comments:
Post a Comment