Bank of America suffers massive outage
What's the story
Bank of America (BoA) suffered a major system outage on Friday (local time), leaving thousands of customers unable to access their accounts. The issue primarily affected the bank's mobile banking platform. Major cities like Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago were among those hit by the glitch. Downdetector reported over 3,000 complaints as of Friday evening.
User reactions
Customers vent frustrations on social media
Many BoA customers took to social media to voice their frustrations over the outage. Some even claimed their account balances were "wiped out." However, there is no evidence supporting these claims. Downdetector's real-time monitoring showed that 88% of complaints were related to mobile banking while 10% were about online login issues.
Official response
BoA offers troubleshooting tips for login issues
In light of the widespread system failure, BoA has provided some troubleshooting tips for customers facing login issues. These include checking if their password has expired or doesn't meet security standards, which require at least eight characters including one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one number. The bank also suggested verifying that the correct user ID is being entered and stored passwords/credentials are up to date.
Technical analysis
Experts believe issue is with internal systems
Despite the troubleshooting tips, experts believe that the issue is with BoA's internal systems. The bank has not yet given a timeline for when full service will be restored. Customers are advised to keep an eye on official communications for updates. For those with existing accounts, BoA has provided relay services by dialing 711 and keeping their account number ready as an alternative way of reaching the bank during this outage period.