For an update on Chase’s problems on Wednesday morning, please click here.
Chase’s online customers were unable to conduct business on the Web site of Chicago’s biggest bank into Tuesday evening, the down time having stretched on for more than a day.
“It’s an eternity in the online world,” said Jacob Jegher, a senior analyst with Celent, a Boston-based financial services research and consulting firm.
Chase has 16.5 million customers who use its online services.
The biggest issue was the inability of customers to pay bills online, Jegher said.
“If you’re a last-minute person in terms of paying your bills … you’ll be unable to do it,” he said. “The implications are late payments and fees.”
Chase said it would work with customers who encountered such problems.
“Whatever the issue is, we’re happy to talk with them,” said spokesman Tom Kelly. He said customers’ personal information and bank balances remain secure.
Chase said automatic payments haven’t been affected.
As of Tuesday evening, the nation’s second-largest bank did not have an estimate as to when its problem, which it describe as “technical,” would be fixed.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon apologized for the glitch at a banking conference in New York on Tuesday afternoon.
In the absence of more specific information on what caused Chase’s problem, speculation swirled on Twitter and online message boards.
There are many possibilities, said Jegher. “It could be a security and fraud issue, or it could be more basic, a technical glitch.”
In January, some Bank of America customers had trouble accessing online accounts, but the problem was resolved in less than a day. From the outset, BofA ruled out a cyber-attack.
The “general rule is transparency and … get it out quickly,’” said public relations specialist Jonathan Dedmon, a principal at the Dilenschneider Group. However, “sometimes it just takes awhile to get all the facts and the confidence that the problem is being resolved correctly,” he said.
The problem, which affected the Chase online sites for retail banking and credit card transactions, began Monday night.
This kind of glitch comes just as financial firms are finding it easier to get customers to go digital. Larger banks have made a massive push to encourage business to be handled online, both because it’s less costly for the bank and because it’s convenient for the customer.
And that push has worked. For the first time, more bank customers — 25 percent — prefer to bank online compared with any other method of transaction, a 2009 survey from the American Bankers Association showed. The Internet is the preferred banking mode for customers under age 55.
Chase urged customers to conduct transactions at branches or by phone at 800-935-9935. Its ATMs are operating normally. The bank does not charge its customers fees for transactions at a teller station, by phone or at an ATM.
Roupen Demirdjian, owner of Middle Eastern restaurant Sayat Nova in Chicago, visited a Chase branch late Tuesday afternoon to cash a check. He said he often uses online banking to balance his account, as well as to pay bills. He said he didn’t need to access to his online account immediately, but said he’d be upset if the system were down another day or two.
“Then I wouldn’t be able to point and click,” he said. “My check-writing isn’t what it used to be.”
Pete Nguyen, a Web site developer, said he was unable to check his account balance on his iPhone and had to visit the Chase branch at Ohio Street and Michigan Avenue to check it on an ATM. He said he didn’t try calling the branch because he figured he’d “get the runaround.”
kbergen@tribune.com | byerak@tribune.com
I live in Phoenix, AZ. Thanks for letting me know. Chase never did! Still down 8:20MST. I have bills to pay and as Trump said: “Your fired”. I will start pulling my money out if there if any is left!
I have been in the hospital for over two months. I needed to pay bills and bring my account up to date. When I got home, I immediatly went to the computer to get online with my accounts and found out you have been out of service for two days. I cannot handle this kind of service.
What did all of you people do before computers? Seriously. OMG I’M GONNA PULL ALL OF MY MONEY ($300) OUT AND FIND A NEW BANK THAT’LL SHOW THEM (plunges head into sand).
Grow up.
This sh** is outrageous!!!!!! I am about to call for a federal probe into this.Them mofos are out of god*** control!!
LOOUUDDD NNOIIISSESSS!!!!!
@orly
Pretty much this. If you put that much faith into a computer, you’d better be prepared for the occasional inconvenience. Things happen, learn to deal. Threatening to pull all of your money out and complaining on an online message board to a bunch of randoms who couldn’t care less is pretty childish.
What did all of us do before computers? Well, honestly, some of us are too young to have done anything else. I barely remember remember life before computers, and I’ve been banking online for over ten years. Sure, we still write checks sometimes and visit an ATM once in a while, but I kid you not that I can count the number of times I have actually gone to a bank branch on my hand. Once to open my account, another time to pick a new PIN number or pick up my replaced debit, can’t remember (for security reasons, because if they had let me do it by phone or computer, I would have), and very recently to pick up a transaction register booklet that I’d usually get with my checks, but since I am living in modern times, which offer me the convenience and benefits of digital and electronic everything, I don’t write many checks.
Chase needs to at least follow some sane PR advice and let its customers know a little more about what happened. It only makes us wonder. And, some of us have lots more in the bank than $300, especially when considering savings and mm accounts; this is scary business. The FDIC will insure up to certain amounts, still quite high, but the second largest bank in the nation experiencing this sort of problem leaves me little hope of the FDIC’s abilities.
I don’t plan on pulling out all of my money and transferring elsewhere for a few simple reasons: when they do work, Chase online and its availability of ATMs is still number one in Chicago. I don’t believe in paying fees if you can avoid them, so when I do need cash (although, it’s rare), Chase is everywhere. But, seriously, I can only handle so much of this outage business. It happened a few months ago on a Sunday afternoon (before the scheduled maintenance), but did not last anywhere near this long. Getting very patient and anxious. Curse words come to mind. And, many slip…
Looks like Chase Online is back up and running. Logged in and everything is there and seems fine.
Yesssssssssssssssssssss. Relief. For now.
This is ridiculous as of 9:15am CT on Wednesday and I still can’t log in. Called the local office and they are having the same issues. I’m new to Chase and am very seriously considering pulling out and going back to my local credit union (who had real service).
Ummm nope – still can’t log in, my username and password are NOT working, and when I try the “forgot password” route, I enter the activation code sent to me on my mobile phone and I get a “page cannot be found” message.. WTF – Its been 3 days!
Still down….
Still down for me as well. I can reach the login screen but when I enter my username/password it tells me it’s unable to complete my request.
Chase is certainly capable of sending unsolicited advertisements via text and email during an outage of such nature, yet they are incapable of sending account notifications via text or email regarding the outage. Clearly, Chase’s priorities lie in maximizing profit and minimizing asset risk management. The fact that Chase failed to notify customers or even explain to media outlets the cause of this incident is an omission of liability for which 6.5 million customers need to it accountable for not only late payments, but interest rates that default to the current rate as a result of late payments. The loss is greater than one missed payment. For example, my student loan is currently locked in at 2.75%, and one late payment will cause my account to default to the current interest rate (or 8.75%). Chase has not made a public announcement to date to address issues such as this.
Chase no longer participates in FDIC’s program. Look at their homepage. The non-participation in the FDIC program info is in the right column.
Ridiculous. If I did my job the way they are handling this, I’d have been fired already. And if you sit on hold for a telephone banker? You get to listen to the drivel about the plethora of online services offered and that you can go to the website to sign up.
I don’t think so.
Ahhh, the joys of outsourcing…
@Steve,
Educate yourself: https://www.chase.com/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/shared/marketing/page/FDIC_Coverage
Besides it clearly says on th bottom righ “Member FDIC”!
There is FDIC insurance on your Chase accounts.
Wow, all I really have to say to all of you is grow up. Chase is the number one bank in the country for a REASON. You all depend on a computer, and then act like it’s the worst bank in the world from one isolated incident? Seriously? As for everyone who thinks Chase should pay for your late fees…idiots. The odds are, you don’t have enough money to make the payment on time already, and for the few of you who actually do, there ARE OTHER OPTIONS. Hate to break it to ya, but there is such thing as the TELEPHONE, heaven forbid you CALL the company you need to pay and make the payment over the phone, or if its a local company, actually get off your a** (instead of trying to make the world feel sorry for you) and make the payment there or even use the good old mail to mail your payments! Wow!! Who knew there were sooooo many options other than online??? And if you still insist, maybe try going to that companies website????? You will survive, and threatening to leave is the furthest thing from “smart”. Good luck to you people.
4:35 CST Still down and still not a word from chase. I can’t find any information other than news outlets about what one spokesman said. Man up and put a bulletin on your website or e-mail your customers. Poor services from this company that keep getting worse are going to ruin this company.
I don’t get how you’re all saying you can’t login when it came back up early this morning like I said in my earlier post. Login screen shows up along with being able to login.
It’s still down. And it keeps coming up and then going back down. And to those of you who saying to grow up and stop complaining and just to pull our money out and pay the bills? People have a right to be upset over this. I sent my bills off on Sunday and they were suppose to be posted to the receiving accts on Tuesday. As if yesterday evening when could log on, they were not paid. I can’t pull the money out and pay them because they are still “in process”. And if you have paid enough bills, you would know that alot if companies charge a fee to pay over the phone, some even charge to a fee to pay from the compacts own website! This is why I have always depended on online banking. So, if you don’t want to read the complaints from us and think we are acting too childish, them don’t read these articles and waste your time commenting on them, you are obviously not affected by the outage, or you would understand!
For you nimrods yelling at other people: CHASE is still down so back off.