Chase Bank’s app crashes leaving 1m customers unable to access accounts

Chase Bank left its customers in the dark after the app crashed, leaving up to 1 million users without access to accounts.

The app-only bank provider has had a major disruption since yesterday lunchtime, which prevents customers from logging in.

Chase, which currently serves more than a million UK banking customers, says it is “working around the clock to solve the problem.”

It is backed by US giant JP Morgan and has launched an aggressive drive for UK customers – raising £10bn in deposits within a year of its launch.

It is currently in a major advertising blitz in an effort to grow its UK arm, some of which it has over its 56 million US customers.

The app outage has lasted for approximately 24 hours and has left customers unable to pay or access funds.

Many angry customers have taken to Twitter to express their frustration.

A Chase customer on Twitter said, “Something is happening with Chase Bank. Online account access is not available. App is not functional. And ATMs are out, no access to withdraw cash.’

Another feared they would not be able to make payments today and lower their credit score.

Some customers also complain that they can’t even use their card to pay for things.

One Twitter user said: ‘I’m embarrassed at both the gas station and the grocery store because your app isn’t working right now, just like using my card it seems! Can I get an ETA of when this will be resolved?’

Another added: ‘My app is still not available and can’t use the card for online payments. I also can’t transfer money to a card that actually works. I now need an estimated time for recovery as I need access to my funds today. I called customer service and was told to wait 2 hours, which I did.”

What went wrong?

While many banks often deal with IT problems and meltdowns, it’s not often that a newer challenger goes under. Many of the older banks have legacy IT systems, which is where the problems often come from.

The problem started around noon yesterday, when Chase UK announced on its website that it had a problem with one of its systems stating that users might have problems logging in, completing online card payments and card payment security checks.

It also said that the support team may also not be able to answer specific questions about user accounts.

By the end of the day, it said it was still investigating the matter. It warned that the app may tell users to use or reset their passcode.

It’s 8 hours update stated ‘Please don’t do this if you see this message. Please try to log in later.’

For those who manage to log in, it says they might see some useless looking errors full of numbers and random letters.

As of 11 a.m. – almost 24 hours after the first reported problem, the problem persists.

On her website, Chase stated, “The issues with our services are still ongoing. We know this is not what you expect from your bank and we apologize for the inconvenience.

“We are truly sorry about the ongoing issue with our service and our teams are working hard to identify and resolve it. If errors occur, please try again in an hour.

“Direct debits, standing orders and future date payments remain unaffected by this issue.”

This is Money has requested an official statement from Chase UK and at the time of publication we are awaiting a response.