CHICAGO — Some Bank of America customers said funds are missing from their accounts, including funds from cell deposits and transactions.
A spokesman for Bank of America told ABC7 San Francisco that the issue has been resolved and deposits and transfers are beginning to appear in customers’ accounts.
As of Wednesday morning, many customers took to social media to express their frustration and try to find answers.
“What’s going on, accounts are overdrawn???!!!!!” said a Twitter user.
“Where is my money!!! Account negative!!!!” said another.
DownDetector, a website that monitors the status of websites, said that “user reports indicate problems at Bank of America,” with the first user-submitted reports arriving at 1:42 a.m. Wednesday, January 18. Sixty-six percent of these reportedly had a “money transfer” problem.
BofA customers on social media also report that when they try to call customer service, they receive a message that their call cannot be completed due to “extenuating circumstances.” At a Houston branch, a line of more than a dozen customers waited for help, several of whom said money was missing from their accounts. They tell ABC13 Houston that they were told to call customer service, but they can’t get the representatives on the phone, so they showed up in person.
“Has the entire phone customer service team been fired? I’ve been trying to reach someone on the hotline for 20 minutes with no success, even the scam hotline is down.” tweeted one customer.
Bank of America posted a warning on its app stating, “Please note: Cell transactions made between January 14th and 17th may be delayed in posting to accounts as requested. Transfers will complete and appear in your account activity and balance as soon as possible. We apologize for any delay or inconvenience.”
The Official BofA Support Twitter Account “@BofA_Help,” responded to a customer complaint: “We apologize for a delay that has affected some transactions. Transfers are being completed and will be reflected in your account activity and balance as soon as possible. Please do not initiate a duplicate transaction.”
Due to some missing funds sent via the in-app cell network, customers have also tweeted about the cell help account. According to “@cellsupport” Account: “The cell app and network are operational. As one of our partner banks, Bank of America has full control over the cell feature in their app. We do not have access to the profiles, payments or records of anyone connected to them.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D – Massachusetts) urged both Bank of America and Zelle to help their customers tweet: “.@BankofAmerica and @Zelle appear to be failing customers again, with money somehow disappearing from accounts. This should be fixed immediately and customers should be compensated. I alerted Zelle to serious fraud issues and this is their latest outage.”
Bank of America currently has approximately 67 million personal and small business customers in the United States. According to Insider Intelligence, the number of cell users is expected to reach 61.1 million in 2022. Cell, a peer-to-peer payments network, is owned by Early Warning Services, LLC, which in turn is owned by Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC, Truist, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.
Both Bank of America and Zelle have seen a rise in fraud, with scammers tricking customers into sending them money through Zelle under the guise of “protecting” their funds with Bank of America.
This is an evolving story. Check for updates again.
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