Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland apps go down with thousands of customer unable to access their accounts

Online banking went down for Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland leaving thousands of customers without access to their accounts in full.

Internet tool Downdetector saw a spike in reports for the three banking brands this morning with users reporting seeing the letters 'N/A' instead of available funds.

Others reported receiving error messages which directs them to 'please try again later' and apologises for the inconvenience.

Online banking appears to be down for Halifax , Lloyds and Bank of Scotland, all part of the Lloyds Banking Group, leaving thousands of customers without access to their accounts

The issues appear to have started at about 10.30am this morning with reports to Downdetector coming in from across the UK, with more than 3,000 reports to the site being recorded. 

All three companies are part of the Lloyds Banking Group which has since said the issue has now been resolved.

Frustrated customers took to social media to share their concern. 

One user said: 'I've just logged on and it's not showing anything for my accounts, just saying that something went wrong and they can't show details at this time.

'Trying to call but apparently the phone operators are 'extremely busy'. Please help.'

Another wrote: 'I am trying to send my mom some money for mothers day but your app is not showing my account! What is going on with your app?'

Pictured: The biggest decline in the Big Six banks has been at Barclays. Once the largest bank in Britain in terms of the number of branches, it shut nearly 800 branches between 2014 and 2022. It now has less than Lloyds, who now has the most, and a similar level to Natwest

A third user said: 'Won't be a happy mums day if the app don't start working.. can't see balances for any account or do anything else.'

On Downdetector, another customer added: 'Can't login to my account, or when it does login it won't display my accounts.

'This has been an intermittent problem for a few months now. I'm thinking of moving banks because it's so frequent. It's down more than it's up!'

It comes as the latest data showed Britain has lost nearly 5,000 High Street banks in a decade, sparking fears that the elderly, vulnerable and those living in rural areas are effectively being 'cut adrift' from face-to-face banking.

Figures analysed earlier this month show there were more than 13,300 banks  in cities, towns and villages across the UK in 2012 - down from 20,583 in 1988. 

But by the end of last year that figure had dropped even further to just 8,810 - a staggering 34 per cent decrease in less than a decade.

Figures show more than 12,000 bank branches existed in towns and villages across the UK in 2015 - down from 20,583 in 1988. Pictured: Library image of a Lloyds Bank

Lloyds is currently the biggest bank in terms of branches but they too have shut more than 400 branches in the last eight years.

Just this week, the company came under fire after announcing it plans to shut 60 branches across the country, adding to recent closures as customers choose to sort their finances online.

The lending giant said it would close 24 Lloyds branches, as well as 19 Bank of Scotland and 17 Halifax sites.

The branches are thought to employ 124 people, but Lloyds said it would try to find affected staff new roles within the company.

The bank said it had seen a 27 per cent rise in use of its mobile banking app over the last two years, and a 12 per cent rise in regular users of its online banking system.

Now 18.6 million people regularly bank online and 15 million use the mobile app.

A Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson: 'We know some of our customers had issues accessing mobile and online banking for a short time this morning.

'We're sorry about this and both our website and app are now back to normal.'