Barclays card payment system fails for several hours

Customers with Barclays bank (NYSE: BCS-PA - news) were unable to use their cards to make payments or withdraw cash for several hours.

Anyone who tried to use an ATM, pay at a till with their debit card, carry out a transaction by phone or make a payment in a branch is thought to have been affected.

Some time around 2pm, Barclays UK tweeted: "Technical issues are affecting some digital services. We're investigating this and apologise for any inconvenience."

Two hours later, the bank put out another Twitter (Frankfurt: A1W6XZ - news) post that said: "We're still experiencing issues affecting Barclays Debit Card and ATM transactions. Our teams are working to get this restored."

The bank blamed its own systems and said a cyber attack was not responsible.

The system failure left many customers angry they could not use their cards.

One Twitter user posted: "Got stuck in a car park with my little boy because I was unable to pay my ticket. Some lovely lady helped me out and paid for it".

Another said: "Just had to tell my tattoo artist I couldn't pay him half way through. Now (Frankfurt: 11N.F - news) in the pub for dinner but guess what?"

Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) told the Press Association the problem was fixed by 4.20pm adding that it did not know how many customers were affected.

A spokeswoman said: "We're aware some customers may have had issues with some digital services today.

"We can confirm everything is now back up and running and customers can get money out of ATMs and card payments are going through. We apologise to any customers that were impacted."

At 7.52pm, it tweeted: "Our Debit Card services are now restored. We apologise to all affected, and for any inconvenience caused by this technical issue."