Some Bank of America customers say they logged in Wednesday and found their accounts showed $0 balances — leading some consumers to express fear and rage at the banking giant. The bank confirmed the issue to me and said it was resolved late Wednesday night.
One consumer told me his account still shows a balance of $0 after seven hours, and provided screen shots to show me.
“It’s a shocker to login, particularly after a charge was inexplicably declined, and see this. I thought it was Equifax II,” the consumer said.
Bank of America says it is aware of the issue and reassured consumers on Twitter that it was cosmetic — a display issue only. Account balances are not impacted, the firm says.
“Basically had a stroke seeing $0 where there should have been other numbers and had to sit on hold to get a non-answer. Unacceptable,” wrote one consumer on Twitter. “I woke up to inaccurate $0 balance online across all my accounts, had to wait on hold for 25 mins for frazzled customer service to say ‘It’s a known glitch in the system we’re working on.’ … maybe a little note reassuring your customers would have been in order?”
Other complainers used even more colorful language.
“Inaccurate account balance! You condescending (omitted). “We wake up and OUR F&&&ING MONEY IS GONE!!!! Say something.”
It’s not clear how many accounts were impacted by the incident.
“Some clients may currently see an inaccurate account balance when viewing their account summary in online banking/mobile,” Bank of America’s @BofA_Help account is replying to some consumers who complain. “Clients should click the individual account view for their correct balance. Client accounts have not been impacted.”
The bank says customer information is secure.
“Some clients are seeing an inaccurate account balance in online or mobile banking. There is no impact to their accounts and their information remains secure,” Mark Pipitone, a spokesperson for the bank, told me. “We are showing our clients who are impacted and contact us ..via social or other means.. the other ways they can view their current balance.”
This isn’t the only problem BOA has. We have been clients for 25 years without incident, never overdrawn, or late with credit card payments. Never paid a cent in credit card interest. Yet, within the last few weeks we are getting multiple payment declines on accounts we have bought things from for years. Accounts such as AMAZON, gas station, local grocery store, Instacart, and such. No one has solved the problem, although I have received “I apologize” ad nauseam.