Bank of America website down for five hours

When online banking services are disrupted, people notice. When you’re the No. 1 online banking provider and things go wrong, people notice a lot.

A systems problem at Bank of America created sporadic service outages for nearly five hours today, spokeswoman Tara Burke said. The problems, beginning at about 8 a.m. California time, occurred throughout the Charlotte, N.C., bank’s online systems and weren’t confined to a region.

Burke declined to say how many of the bank’s 24 million online customers had been unable to access their information. But on Google Trends, which tracks the most popular requests on the search engine, five of the top 10 requests this afternoon related to Bank of America, with "bank of america online banking" in the No. 1 slot.

The bank, by far the largest consumer financial institution, wouldn’t say what caused the outages. Burke said no sensitive data were lost or stolen, adding that customers were able to access their accounts at branches and ATMs and by using the 800 telephone number.

"We apologize to customers for any inconvenience," she said.

It wasn’t clear whether the systems problem was related to turmoil in the nation’s financial markets. Brokerage websites strained under heavy trading last week, with at least four experiencing slow service or failure to load pages last week, according to reports.

-- E. Scott Reckard

Comments

[dan]

whoops

[Miguel]

They better have it up tomorrow. Their incompetence cost me money. I was unable to sell stock with my BAC brokerage account.

[Hopeful Jones]

This is why about 35% of you need to move your money over to the best bank for business and personal banking, WaMu or Washington Mutual!

Don't believe what the media is saying. It's all speculation. The problem with "news" is that it makes people fearful and they react by moving their monies to some mega-bank b/c they think big automatically means safer or responsible versus just extremely savvy at hustling cash. Well, there is a price that comes with big and BofA is not ashamed to slap a fee on any transaction you can muster up. It's like flying Delta. Seatbelt anyone? Yes. Well, that'll be $50!

WaMu provides the best customer service of any bank next to USAA. Best of all, WaMu issues NO FEES for banking with them--NO STRINGS or MINIMUMS ATTACHED! As long as current and prospective customers don't panic and think that the bank is going under, it will not. Most of the reasons all the other majors went under is due to fear that the banks would. Investors and others began moving their money around. Banks that had an inkling of hope had no other choice but to fold or sell once cash reserves began to deplete. It's similar to when gas prices go up and everyone runs to the pump thinking that we'll run out of gas or have to pay a higher price. If everyone acted NORMAL, the prices wouldn't skyrocket close to $1.00 extra overnight.

Another great bank that is overlooked is ING Direct. They are the ONLY bank offering 3% interest on every savings balance business or personal (actually higher on business accounts). Can you say, "Two Thumbs Up?"

Being a major bank is not the defining factor. Like this system glitch you don't want to be caught with majority of people five hours w/o access to your banking info except in person or via phone.

Do your research then come join me over at Whoo Hoo! I mean, WaMu!
www.wamufreechecking.com/FreeChecking/index.html?appType=FC&AffiliateID=googlesearch&CreativeID=WFC

[Philly]

No big surprise. Mercury goes retrograde in two days. Isn't anyone at BofA paying attention?

[Carol]

Hopeful Jones--The reason I left Wamu is because of their lousy online banking. Most months, I was getting a paper letter saying that my online statement had bounced back. I switched to Bof A because they are one block from my house, and while I have complaints, their online banking is superb.

[joseph group]

BANK OF AMERICA IS THE BEST ONLINE BANK THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN 6 YRS WITH BOFA THAT THE ONLINE SERVICE WENT DOWN AND YES I HAVE A ING AND HSBC ACCOUNTS.I WOULD NOT EVER CHANGE BANKS WAMU IS NOT AS GOOD AS BOFA IN MY VIEW.

[Reality]

Are you serious about WaMu? What color is the sky on your planet?

WaMu is about to get chopped into pieces and sold to other banks OR seized by the FDIC.

"Washington Mutual was under mounting pressure from regulators yesterday to reach a deal with prospective buyers that would put the beleaguered US bank in stronger hands.

The Office of Thrift Supervision was pushing for a speedy solution, said people familiar with the talks.

If no outright buyer emerges in the coming days, the regulator could push to broker a deal that would split WaMu between several banks. " _Financial Times 9/23/08

[Steve]

I can't believe this didn't make more news reports. I am in Georgia and could not access my account for hours. I also had a Debit Card credit transaction fail, to an online retailer, for the authorization service being unavailable!

[aj]

I don't want an apology. I want MONETARY compensation!

[Rich]

Apparently the problem has not been fixed. I am in Washington state and have been unable to access my account for the last half hour.

[jonathan murray]

same here in new jersey today. I can't access my online account.

[Xemp]

Bank of America is by far the largest consumer bank, which is why it has the worst service, no one is responsible. So far US Bank has been the best alternative, its large yet not ever super crowded, it caters to the American people, if you know what I mean.

[Daniel L.]

I tried to accsess my BOA online account half of the day on Friday 9/26/08. I've tried again at 12:30 am on Saturday 9/27/08 and still can not get on. I hope they fix this problem soon.

[caleb]

WaMu, LMAO, Talk about sticking your foot in your mouth.

[Tom]

LOL at WaMu commentor. Tho I shouldn't laugh. Apparently getting slapped with BoA fees each month kept SOMEONE in business.

I think I'm going to switch to USAA however. BoA is getting on my nerves.

[Stuart Bell]

Bank of America online banking "MY Portfolio" lost all of my financial data - 2+ years of history, accounts and passwords - after an employee accidentally deleted my account.

When I called, the rep and the rep's supervisor told me, "I don't think there is anything we can do about it except to train the employee not to do it again."

When I asked if they back up their computer data, no one seemed to know.

Now that BofA is the largest bank, I believe their account reps have a new standard of poor they must mee. Hopefully someone along the chain will find my data and restore it.

In the meantime, is there anything I can do to assure myself the data isn't in the hands of an identity theaf?