The massive Barclays outage that has caused chaos for customers across the UK has left a family “homeless”.
Civil servant Paola Mereu, 39, have been left in limbo after selling the house she and her husband and their two daughters, aged one and seven, lived in at Uxbridge.
They were meant to buy their new home in West Sussex on Friday. Yet the Barclays IT glitch that has left customers unable to make payments or access their accounts left them unable to complete the transaction.
The bank has apologised to customers. It said the bank is facing “ongoing technical issues that are impacting our customers’ accounts”.
Mrs Mereu said: “We drove down to (West Sussex on Friday) and we had all our things in a moving van and were waiting outside and unfortunately, around one o’clock, my solicitor calls and says Barclays is having some issues and we are unable to complete the sale.
“So we sold our house – we had the money from that – but we were unable to complete the other part of the sale so we are essentially homeless. We waited until five o’clock, Barclays still didn’t fix it, so we literally have no house and it is still not fixed.”
The family say they are currently staying with Mrs Mereu’s mother in London. The moving van with all their belongings is on her driveway.
She said she is in limbo about what to do next. “I am not sure if we will incur extra costs from the people we are buying from because we did not fulfil our part of the contract as the money was meant to go though on Friday,” she added.
“It’s crazy, we are hoping the issues are resolved by Monday. It took us so long to get this dream house and yesterday was meant to be the happiest day of our lives and instead we ended up homeless.
“I feel like I am in a TV series episode.” Barclays is reportedly contacting vulnerable customers to offer help and support, with their calls to the bank’s phonelines being prioritised.
A spokesperson for Barclays said: “We’re incredibly sorry for the ongoing technical issues that are impacting our customers’ accounts.
“Some may see an outdated balance, and payments made or received may not show.
“We’re working hard to fix this issue, and customers should not try to make the payment again.
“Customers can use their cards and withdraw cash, and as soon as these remaining issues are resolved, we’ll let our customers know. We will ensure that no impacted customer is left out of pocket.”
It comes after multiple customers complained on Saturday that they were still unable to access payments. Customers took to social media to complain to Barclays, whose staff have issued numerous apologies to people affected.
One person said they were unable to feed their baby due to a lack of money. Another said they could not feed their family.
Yet another said they had been left in tears. Some have had to give back groceries to delivery drivers at their doorstep due to being unable to pay.
“Due to you Barclays I’m left without money had a food shop due for delivery this morning which now will get cancelled, leave my four kids with no food it’s a joke as (it is) my money,” one X user claimed.
Another said: “Well, I’ve just had to put all my shopping back in Tesco never been so embarrassed in my life .. as can’t access my own money.”
