The IT crisis engulfing TSB has entered a sixth day, with customers still experiencing problems accessing their accounts despite assurances from the bank that its internet and mobile services are now up and running.

Guardian readers affected by the banking fiasco have been writing in to share their experiences.

Matt from South Wales is on holiday in the Canary Islands and has been unable to pay for goods and services:

I arrived on Saturday for a five-night break and this has totally ruined my holiday. My card was declined in a restaurant I went to and I had to walk 50 mins back to my hotel as I didn’t have enough money to pay for a taxi. I tried to contact TSB via email and on the phone but after waiting for 40 minutes I couldn’t wait any longer. I feel for everyone that’s having these problems and I can’t wait to get home to speak to someone in person. They are not keeping their customers updated and they will lose a lot of customers due to this terrible service. How can we trust them after this?”

Jules Hawkins, 54, who owns a Bristol-based leather lingerie brand, Lux Tenebrae, has been unable to pay her staff:

I’m going to have to pay them out of my First Direct personal account, which will look to HMRC like I’m paying myself a huge amount of money when I eventually manage to reimburse myself. My staff don’t have TSB accounts so why should they have to bear the brunt of this mess by going overdrawn and having to wait to claim back? It’s the end of the month and they have rent and bills to pay. Also, are my automated payments still going out? Did I just pay my tax? Don’t even get me started on trying to input my end-of-year tax return.

Angela from Kent is concerned about her upcoming holiday:

We are going away on Saturday and can’t transfer money from our savings to buy holiday clothes and travel money. We didn’t bother trying to contact TSB as their phone call waiting time is more than an hour!

Mark, 54, from Birmingham was left on hold for three hours after seeing his account was showing in US dollars:

My account is showing £40k in arrears against my mortgage and the whole account shows in dollars. I can live with all of that but yesterday my son couldn’t eat as I couldn’t transfer funds to his Parent Pay account.

Everybody can have issues but the true measure is how you rectify them. TSB’s contingency has been very poorly thought out and will undoubtedly cost them long-term loyal customers.

Jos is on a low income, with no credit cards or savings accounts and is unable to use his debit card:

I have £3.14 in my pocket, my wife is disabled and we can’t shop for food. I’ve been able to see my account details twice on the app since Sunday – both times the balance was wrong with credits and debits to the account missing.

I have been particularly infuriated by TSB’s claims of “intermittent” problems, which is entirely untrue.

Sue Capener, 69, is disabled and lives on her own in Liverpool. She was expecting her online food shop to be delivered but her order was cancelled because of a declined payment:

I usually get a shop in on Monday but TSB wouldn’t release the funds. I can’t go out and I have no family to help me. Instead I’m sitting here answering calls about my bills not getting paid. Thankfully my four chihuahuas have enough food for the moment. I also saw the man next door and he was able to get me a loaf of bread from the shop but I’m getting stressed out and I’m at breaking point to be honest.

Samantha from Doncaster logged into her account on Monday only to find the account she was looking at was not her own:

I could see I had £200 more than I should have. After logging off and then on again I could see the transactions were completely different to mine – one was for WHSmith. I’ve never shopped there in my life. By the evening my accounts had vanished. My council tax was due and they called saying the payment had bounced. Thankfully, when I told them I was with TSB they were fine about it. Luckily I took cash out on Friday but it is disgusting! All I can do is hope that someone is not looking at my account like I was looking at theirs. I tried to call TSB and got an automated person speaking and then the phone went dead.

Andrew, a 44-year-old financial company director from Selby has had enough and is looking at moving his accounts:

Both my current account and savings accounts are held with TSB and not having access to these funds is both frustrating and very disappointing. Having been a loyal customer for more than 15 years, despite various campaigns from other banks offering better products and services, this latest problem is the final straw and I’ve completed the paperwork to move my accounts to First Direct. I’m optimistic there won’t be any problems with the switch.