Lloyds and Halifax online banking down: Customers tell of fury as they are unable to make payments or see available funds

Lloyds Bank and Halifax customers have told of their fury after being left without access to online banking.

Maintenance work on the bank’s internet and telephone banking services was affecting those trying to use the services on Monday evening.

Customers took to social media to complain that they could not access their accounts, with many taking aim at the bank for not giving enough warning.

They were also told of their “panic” after they could not see the amount of money available in their accounts and were not able to make payments.

Both Halifax and Lloyds issued statements on their official Twitter feeds to warn about the updates.

The statements said “some” customers would be affected on Monday evening between 8pm and 11pm.

But customers were left furious and some said they should have been warned about the updates by text rather than just on social media.

One customer wrote on Twitter: “You think using Twitter is a proper way to communicate a maintenance to your customers.

“My girlfriend and I are abroad having dinner and couldn't pay our dinner, feel embarrassed in a restaurant full of people!!!”

Another wrote: “It would have been nice to know inside the app that some services wouldn’t work for 3 hours, without hunting on Twitter.”

And another complained: “Talk about panicking, could have put a maintenance message within the banking app and banking website instead of a big red N/A next to my account!

“Thought something had seriously gone wrong with my account.”

A Lloyds Banking Group spokeswoman said: “To keep things running smoothly we are carrying out some planned maintenance work to Internet Banking this evening. This will affect some of our customers between 8-11pm tonight and we’re sorry for any inconvenience that it may cause.”