Not upheld: service failure and technical outage affecting time-critical payment complaint against Bank of Scotland plc trading as Halifax

Decision detail

Summary

Mr A booked a holiday requiring a £3,000 final payment by 3pm on 20 October 2025. Halifax experienced online banking service issues from 8.30am that were mostly resolved by 1pm. Mr A attempted to login at 10.13am, 12.50pm, and 2.28pm but was unsuccessful, and the travel company cancelled his booking at 3.30pm when payment was not received. Mr A complained that Halifax's service failure prevented him from making the payment, resulting in loss of his £1,000 deposit and forcing him to take out a £5,000 loan to rebook at higher cost. The ombudsman found the complaint not upheld, determining that Halifax's logs showed Mr A could successfully authenticate earlier in the day, subsequent failures were due to incorrect credentials, and alternative payment methods were available through the travel company.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Halifax did experience service issues, the evidence did not establish these as the direct cause of Mr A's missed payment. Halifax's logs showed Mr A successfully used biometrics to login and make payments in early morning hours, and subsequent login attempts showed authentication failures attributable to incorrect credentials rather than system failure. Online banking was substantially restored by 1pm, leaving over 2.5 hours before the extended 3.30pm deadline. The ombudsman noted Mr A had alternative payment methods available through the travel company and should have attempted to mitigate by contacting them. Additionally, Mr A's account was already overdrawn, raising questions about whether he had funds available to make the £3,000 payment.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website