Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland customers affected by an app glitch last month have been handed “goodwill payments” averaging around £40 after complaining to the banking giants – could you be eligible for one? It comes after Lloyds Banking Group confirmed that up to 447,936 customers across its Lloyds Bank, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland brands who viewed their transaction list following an IT glitch last month “may have been presented with other people’s transactions or may have had some of their transactions presented on another customer’s transaction list”.
Responding in a letter to enquiries from the Treasury Select Committee, the group’s CEO of Consumer Relationships Jasjyot Singh said up to 114,182 customers “clicked through to view the detail behind individual current account transactions during that time and may have been presented with information about individual payments”. The firm said the issue was caused by a “software defect” from an overnight IT update.
Mr Singh said in March 24 letter that the group had not “identified evidence that customers have suffered financial loss”, and no customer had reported a financial loss arising from the glitch by that stage.
“Accordingly, we have not made compensation payments on this basis. However, we would of course address any claims for financial loss and associated compensation promptly.”
He added that it is the group’s “existing practice that we may make goodwill payments for distress and inconvenience in individual cases, for example where there has been a direct impact on an individual”.
As of March 23 he said Lloyds had made goodwill payments totalling just over £139,000 to some 3,625 customers. That works out to around £40 on average, though it’s not clear what the payments range between.
MoneySavingExpert.com, the personal finance outlet founded by Martin Lewis, says they’ve seen a number of reports on social media of affected customers being offered a payment after reaching out to their bank.
One said they were offered £25 after flagging the issues they faced, others got £40 and another said they were given £50.
Lloyds said from March 24, all customers who may have viewed other people’s transactions or had their transactions incorrectly seen by others “will be alerted in their app”.
MSE says there are a few options for people who believe they may be due goodwill payments. This includes contacting either Lloyds, Halifax, or Bank of Scotland and explaining how your were affected by the glitch.
If that doesn’t work you can also raise a formal complaint, with instructions on how to do this on the banks’ websites, the website says.
MSE says you can escalate your case to the Financial Obudsman Services as a last resort if you’re not satisfied with the bank’s decision or it hasn’t responded to your complaint within eight weeks.
You can find out more on MoneySavingExpert’s website.
