Tesco Bank customers locked out of online accounts due to technical glitch

Follows ongoing problems at rival challenger TSB

Problems were first reported on Tuesday afternoon

Tesco Bank customers were left unable to access their online banking accounts on Tuesday, due to a technical issue.

Customers complained that they could not access their accounts via the internet or through mobile phone apps on Tuesday afternoon.

Social media users said they were unable to check their balances, transfer funds or pay bills, and said phone banking services were taking too long.

The bank, which has five million customers, said the issue was resolved by 2.30pm on Tuesday, and said customers were able to access their accounts by phoning customer service contact centres.

A spokesperson for Tesco Bank said: "We apologise to customers who were unable to access online and mobile banking earlier today. These services are now working as normal and we would like to thank customers for their patience.”

Tesco Bank’s online service was rocked by a cyber attack in 2016, which led to thousands of customers’ transactions being frozen.

Around 40,000 accounts were affected by the hack, and 20,000 customers had money removed from their accounts.

The challenger ended up paying out millions to reimburse customers whose money was taken.

The more recent problems at Tesco come as management from rival challenger bank TSB prepare to face the Treasury Select Committee for another round of questioning after an IT failure earlier this year left thousands of customers unable to access their online accounts.

TSB came under fire from MPs and consumers after an attempt to migrate to a new operating platform in April went awry, with some customers’ details appearing in other people’s accounts.