Why Is Bank of America Down? All About the Mass Outage Causes

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Bank of America gave its customers quite a scare, and many are still trying to figure out what happened.

Thousands reported trouble accessing their accounts on Wednesday afternoon as the financial institution faced a widespread outage. For many, a “Connection Error” message appeared while trying to log into the banking app. The message stated it was “unable to complete your request” and urged users to “try again later.”

Users began reporting outages on DownDetector shortly after 12 p.m. ET on October 2, with reports peaking around 1:30 p.m. Although the number of reported problems has since declined, some users continued to experience issues as of Thursday morning.

Bank of America serves 69 million U.S. consumer and small business clients and operates over 15,000 ATMs across the country. Earlier this year, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Wealth Management was recognized in the Kiplinger Readers’ Choice Awards for trustworthy advisers.

Here’s everything we know so far about the outage and the last time this occurred for the bank.

What Caused the Bank of America Outage?

Bank of America has not provided a specific cause for the outage or issued a public statement beyond a comment from a spokesperson. The statement read:

“Some clients are experiencing issues accessing their accounts and balance information today. These issues are being addressed and have largely been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The banking giant has yet to post on social media but has informed media outlets that the problems “have largely been resolved.”

When Did the Most Recent Bank of America Outage Occur?

Before this outage, there was another one over the summer when CrowdStrike, the global cybersecurity company, experienced a significant crash due to a flawed update.

How Have Bank of America Customers Responded?

Customers experiencing the outage took to social media platforms like X and Reddit to confirm they were having similar issues. Many also reported difficulties reaching Bank of America’s customer service.

I'm having a heart attack this morning thanks to @BankofAmerica – they REALLY need to be addressing this pic.twitter.com/jXQU1M2s19

— Jessica (Pixels) (@GermaricanMix) October 2, 2024

“My account says ‘some accounts are temporarily unavailable,’ and there are dashes showing for my savings and debit card balances. However, when I click on the account directly, I can see the balance,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“It shows my debt just fine, though,” another netizen commented.