Barclays Bank had widespread technical problems beginning on January 31 and continued until February 3. The timing of the glitch has left some without their wages for the month while others have been hit with £100 fines from HMRC for missing the self-assessment tax return deadline.
One Uxbridge family revealed they had been left homeless by the outage as they had recently sold their house and planned to buy their new West Sussex home on Friday. The family told the Independent they were “in limbo” without a home until the issue was fixed and their funds could go through to complete the sale.
However, customers are not completely without options as they do have paths of redress if they have been left out of pocket. These have to start during the technical issue though as customers should collect and keep any evidence of costs they incurred due to the outage.
This can include screenshots, receipts, relevant emails or letters, according to MSE. You may be able to ask the bank to put you back in the position you would have been in had the problem not have happened.
It may also be worth contacting the other firms you may be indebted to now as a result of payments not going through to see if a remedy can be reached. Unfortunately for those hit by the Barclays problem, HMRC has confirmed it will not offer refunds of the penalties and interest being charged on overdue tax as it was not an error on their systems that caused the delay.
You may also be able to request goodwill compensation from the place the problem originated if you feel you have suffered emotional or other damages and inconveniences. If a request does not work, you may be able to raise a formal complaint.
You can escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service as an absolute last resort if the bank has not responded to your complaint within a set number of weeks, eight weeks for Barclays, or you’re unhappy with the response. The Ombudsman is free to use and has the power to order banks to pay monetary compensation.
The MSE experts also issued an urgent warning around scammers who may be taking advantage of the situation. They advised people to always contact the bank directly yourself to verify any communications.
Barclays has noted itis actively trying to contact customers who may have been left in a vulnerable position due to the issue ‘and will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket’. They are also getting accounts up-to-date following delays in payments.