Three banks to pay out compensation to thousands of customers over app glitch

An investigation was launched last month

The app fail affected many customers of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland last month.

All three banks are part of the Lloyds Banking Group, which says it is the UK's largest retail and commercial banking provider, with 26 million customers.

Lloyds Banking Group said that it has now paid out more than £139,000 in goodwill payments.

The banking group confirmed last month in a letter to the Treasury Committee that so far it had issued payments to around 3,625 customers, which is an average of about £40 each.

At the time of the letter, the bank was still responding to customers who were getting in touch to say they had been directly affected.

The company said compensation was being offered on a case‑by‑case basis under its existing “distress and inconvenience” policy, while it seems there is no fixed gesture on offer.

“I used to work for HSBC and banks have a pot for 'service failures', with staff discretion to pay up to £100 as a goodwill gesture when things go wrong for whatever reason”, consumer disputes expert Scott Dixon told the Money blog.

“My advice to anyone who has a complaint with their bank is to mention 'service failure' and how it's affected you”.

“I never accept the first offer unless I'm happy with it. If this happened to me and I was affected by it, I'd push back nicely and ask, 'Is that the best you can do?', and reiterate the impact it's had on you. This isn't about complaining for the sake of it. It's about holding firms to account for their negligence.”

According to Dixon, you could take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service for review, if you're not happy with the offer.

Anyone who accepted a compensation offer would see their case closed, though any relevant consumer rights would not be affected, Lloyds Banking Group said.