Account holders complain of being unable to withdraw cash or pay for food and petrol in latest meltdown for high-street banks

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Customers vented their anger on Sunday night 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 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. In response to a tweet from one customer, he said that the problem had been caused by a server failing in the UK.

Pester told another 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."

Lloyds later provided more details of the problem, which it said had resulted in some customers being unable to complete debit card transactions between 3pm and 6pm.

It added: "Although the majority of transactions were unaffected, we are very sorry for the inconvenience that this will have caused. At the same time, some customers encountered problems at approximately half of our 7,000 ATMs. This was resolved by 7.30pm, and all of our ATMs are now working.