Tens of thousands of Lloyds Banking Group credit cards cancelled after Ticketmaster breach

Customers have complained after their bank cards were stopped by Bank of Scotland following a data breach by Ticketmaster - without them being informed.

Tens of thousands of credit card holders with Lloyds Banking Group are to have their credit cards stopped amid fears that their details may have been hacked through the Ticketmaster data breach earlier this year.

The Edinburgh-headquartered banking group - which owns the Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and Halifax brands - said that around 1 per cent of its credit card customers were affected by the summer breach, in which the company found malicious software was exporting customers’ data to an unknown third party.

However, some customers complained that their cards had been stopped without any warning, saying they had been left unable to pay for items in shops or online.

Around 1 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group customers are affected.

The bank says it informs customers that it recommends reissuing their cards - and gives them five days to decide if they want to do so - and said it would look into cases of anyone who claims they have not been consulted.

Ticketmaster warned in June that a large number of people who bought, or who had attempted to buy, tickets through its website between February and 23 June this year may have had their personal information compromised.

Customer Erin Adam, 39, from Fife, had her Bank of Scotland credit card rejected on Sunday while trying to pay for a hotel room.

"It has been very frustrating that I have tried to use my credit card recently for online sales and a hotel reservation only to have the transactions declined through no fault of my own," she said.

"I would have expected the bank to be pro-active and for them to have got in touch with me directly about any cancellation rather than me having to contact them. It is extremely concerning and frankly unacceptable."

Bank of Scotland customer Graham Lindsay, from Dunfermline, had his card declined three times over the weekend, before logging into his phone banking app.

"When I logged in, I received a message saying "do you want to activate your new credit card" with a number which did not match my existing card," he said. "I feared someone had tried to set up a card in my name, so called them immediately. I was told BoS had cancelled and replaced cards of anyone who used Ticketmaster due to the security breach.

"I was told I should have received a letter about it but I have received no such letter, nor has the new credit card arrived."

He added: "I had other cards to use, but imagine if I had been abroad for the school holidays and that was my only card. It could have been disastrous."

A Lloyds Banking Group spokeswoman said: “We use a range of approaches to protect customers from the risk of fraud, including reissuing cards on occasion. In all cases, we take all possible steps to minimise time without a card.”