hundreds of users are locked out of online banking and mobile apps due to the failure of Halifax and Lloyds Bank

HALIFAX and Lloyds Bank have gone down leaving customers locked out of their online banking app.

Hundreds of customers have been affected by the outage according to Downdetector, which monitors tech issues across companies and services.

The majority of Lloyds customers are reporting issues with online banking and mobile banking.

Nearly 60% of Halifax customers are struggling with their online banking.

Halifax and Lloyds are both owned by the same company, Lloyds Banking Group.

The issues, which started being reported just before 10am this morning, don’t appear to be affecting customers in one particular area.

They were ongoing as of 1pm this afternoon.

It also appears the Bank of Scotland, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, is having issues.

Customers have taken to social media following the outage to share their frustration.

One said: “I’m currently without any money as it’s trapped in your system that’s gone down!”

Another said: “Your app is down again. Not impressed.”

Lloyds took to Twitter to say it was aware of some customers having problems with internet and mobile banking.

It’s not clear yet what’s behind the issue and how widespread it is.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said: “We know some of our customers are having problems logging onto Internet and Mobile Banking at the moment.

“We’re sorry for this and we’re working to have it back to normal soon.”

Can I claim compensation for an outage?

Unlike telecoms companies, banks aren’t obliged 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 find out more details about how to complain to Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland on their websites.

If Halifax and Lloyds don’t resolve your complaint, you can take your case up with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

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.

In the case of an IT system outage at a bank, the FOS says any compensation you may receive will be dependent on your circumstances and whether you lost any money as a result.

If it finds the bank was at fault, you may see any fees, charges or fines reimbursed.

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