Customers at Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank were not able to use their debit cards this morning after a "hardware issue" left them unable to make payments or draw cash for the fifth time in two months.

Bank customers vented frustration on Twitter, with one Leeds University student, @BonnitaPatel, saying: "Yorkshire bank you are CRAP! im a poor student that cannot buy shoes or food! Thanks Guys!!! xx"

A spokesperson for the banks, which are both owned by North Australia Bank, said that the disruption was caused by issues at a supplier, First Data.

"Some customer card transactions were affected by an intermittent service issue earlier this morning. This was caused by a hardware issue at our supplier First Data, which is currently being investigated," the spokesperson said.

The first set of outages occurred in early March as the banks transferred their debit card systems over to First Data. Another fault in April left customers in a similar position.

First Data is a US payment processing company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company provides a wide range of payment services in the US, and has received very poor consumer reviews through its Google Places page. 

First Data had not responded to Information Age’s request for comment as this story was published.