Halifax and Lloyds go down in internet outage – is it time YOU had a second current account?

Major apps were hit by a massive internet service outage this morning, reportedly affecting Amazon Web Services – a cloud computing platform that services millions of businesses.

Some of the world’s most popular apps including Snapchat, Zoom and language app Duolingo went down. 

The outage also hit some of the UK’s biggest banks with Lloyds and Halifax caught up in the chaos. 

These are the banks that have been reported as having outages by customers and on outage reporting website Down Detector.

Customers of Lloyds banking group which includes Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax have reported issues using their banking apps this morning

Lloyds Bank

It has been reported that Lloyds bank has been affected by the outage, with many Lloyds customers reporting issues accessing their mobile banking services.

In a post on X, one Lloyds customer sais: ‘Can’t use my Lloyds bank card or app.’   

Down Detector said that user reports indicate problems at Lloyds Bank.

Lloyds posted on its Twitter account this morning: ‘You may have seen reports of issues with Amazon Web Services affecting a number of websites and apps across the UK today. 

‘We know this is impacting some of our services right now. We’re sorry about this. Please bear with us as we investigate this.’

Halifax

Halifax customers have also reported that they have not been able to use their Halifax banking apps. 

Halifax is part of the Lloyds banking group reflecting the outage across the group.  

One Halifax customer on X said: ‘Just took a trip to Halifax bank, as I can’t get online banking as the app doesn’t recognise my account. All Halifax and Lloyd systems nationwide are down.’

Halifax posted the same message as Lloyds on its Twitter social media account. 

Bank of Scotland

Bank of Scotland, which is also part of the Lloyds group, has also had issues due to the Amazon Web Services outage. 

Bank of Scotland customers have been unable to access their bank accounts through the Bank of Scotland app. 

One Bank of Scotland customer reported on X: ‘Bank of Scotland down too.’ 

It has also posted the same message as stablemates Lloyds and Halifax on its Twitter account. 

Why you should have a second bank account to combat bank outages

The main way to protect youtself if your bank goes down in an outage is to have a second bank account with access to online banking. 

Though Lloyds and the banks across its brand were down, other banks for example First Direct, Monzo, Starling and Chase were not affected.  

You don’t need to keep a huge balance in it but it should have enough to cover you if you need to go to the shop and for essentials. 

Andrew Hagger, founder of independent information website MoneyComms, explains: ‘If you’ve got a separate account and debit card you will be able to make payments and additionally if you have a separate online savings account you should be able to switch funds to your second account while your main account is out of action.’

At the moment, many banks are offering customers cash bonuses for switching their current accounts over. 

First Direct is paying £175 to customers who move their current account to a First Direct account. 

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