On Wednesday, thousands of Bank of America customers experienced difficulties accessing their online accounts, as reported by tech disruption monitor Downdetector and shared on various social media platforms.
Many users found themselves unable to log in, while others could access their accounts but saw balances reflecting $0. Reports of outages surged around 12:45 p.m. Eastern time, peaking at 1:25 p.m. with over 19,200 complaints recorded by Downdetector. The number of complaints stabilized about an hour later and gradually declined after 8 p.m.
Bank of America acknowledged the issue, stating, “Some clients are experiencing an issue accessing their accounts and balance information today. These issues are being addressed and have largely been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience.” However, the bank did not provide specifics regarding the cause of the problem. The bank, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, had recently faced significant damage from Hurricane Helene, leaving some to wonder if the outages were related to the aftermath of the storm.
Affected users took to social media to express their frustrations. One customer commented on Downdetector, “Five accounts show zero balance, over 20K.” Another user indicated that both the app and online banking were malfunctioning, saying, “App not working and online banking shows yesterday’s balance.” A third user mentioned, “Both the App and Browser access to BoA remain at least partially down for us,” highlighting that while some accounts were visible, the transfer function was not operational.
Despite the issues, some customers noted that automated phone services provided accurate balance information, contrasting with what was shown online. Additionally, some users received messages stating that balances for one or more accounts “may be temporarily unavailable.”
As the situation unfolded, one customer shared on social media, “Honestly I think they owe everybody some cash for pain and suffering because that was extremely stressful for a second there.”