Just in case you’re going to the store: Chase Bank trouble

ORIGINAL REPORT, 9:47 PM: We haven’t found anything official about this yet, but we know at least one person it’s happened to, and Twitter is abuzz with reportsChase Bank is apparently having some trouble that’s reported to be leading to card declines even for those whose accounts are in fine shape. We’re just mentioning this so that if you’re planning a late-night run to the store, you don’t just take that one particular card.

3:23 PM UPDATE: Since it’s early-early morning across the country, hard to tell yet if this is resolved. We did send an inquiry to Chase’s consumer-banking media-relations rep, asking for information on what happened, and will add anything we find out.

11:38 AM UPDATE: Mike Fusco from Chase just called, answering e-mail we sent early this morning to their media-relations division: “Last night, we experienced a small technical glitch that declined some transactions for a short period of time around (9 pm Pacific) … the issue was resolved … we apologize for the inconvenience.” He stressed that it was a “technical glitch,” not any sort of hacking, nor was it scheduled-but-unannounced maintenance.

33 Replies to "Just in case you're going to the store: Chase Bank trouble"

  • maellen September 14, 2014 (10:00 pm)

    I work at FRED Meyer and have been told this issue is nationwide. No chase bank transaction have been able to process at all.no ATM withdrawals either.

  • matt September 14, 2014 (10:08 pm)

    Yes I’m at a bar and all chase cards are being declined.

  • trickycoolj September 14, 2014 (10:15 pm)

    That sucks. Same thing happened to BECU a few weekends ago and they only used Facebook to communicate about it.

    • WSB September 14, 2014 (10:32 pm)

      Tricky … so far I’ve checked Facebook, Twitter, google search, even Reddit, all the official accounts, and no messaging about this. Maintenance has been announced before on the account user’s page but not this time (I checked ours) and I’ve never seen one before that would have in essence said, “your card will not be usable between x and x.”

  • René September 14, 2014 (10:22 pm)

    I was at Olive Garden with my friends and family for dinner when my card declined, I was so embarrassed….Thank you Chase I can’t wait to close my checking account!

  • Clint C September 14, 2014 (10:49 pm)

    Called Chase. They told me whole system was down and it would be at least 2 hours before it was back up. That was at 9:30 p.m.

  • yvonne September 14, 2014 (11:02 pm)

    Yep just got off the phone with them. They told me it was the “unexpected result of routine maintanence.” And i may have it back by 9am tomorrow. I may be switching banks.

  • CJ September 14, 2014 (11:29 pm)

    I got declined at Walmart in Arizona and when I tried to call Chase I was on hold so long I had to hang up. I got home and went online to see if others were having trouble too but this blog is the only thing I could find to assure me that I am not the only one.

  • mP September 14, 2014 (11:42 pm)

    Just hung up with customer service. He told me to try again in 2 hours. So 1:40 AM PST. It’s a shame that this blog is the only info out there.

    • WSB September 14, 2014 (11:46 pm)

      MP, we are not just a “blog” – small professional news organization, in our 8th year now – nonetheless, as a longtime veteran of conventional media, I’m surprised nobody else is bothering to report on it. As a frequent late-night shopper, once I determined there were enough people talking about it that it was definitely not some kind of rumor or hoax (and our original report came from someone in whom we have the utmost confidence), seemed like at least publishing a mention would be a public service. Chase clearly doesn’t do 24/7 social media, unfortunate for a company that size … we are almost continuously available and our staff doesn’t even number two digits. Anyway, here’s hoping it’s fixed soon. – TR

  • Dan Becker September 15, 2014 (12:58 am)

    I just got off the phone with Chase. Spoke to a regular CSR and a senior one. Both confirmed that Chase payment system is entirely down for “unexpected maintenence”. First CSR said it would be at least an hour before it started working; second CSR said they just got update from the engineers working the issue that it would be 1-2 hours minimum.

    I would not be at all surprised to learn that Chase just discovered (or is only now finally realizing they need to take action on) the true extent of how badly their systems have been penetrated, in an obligatory post-huge-hack security audit. They realized the degree to which their systems have been compromised is so severe that it is literally better for them to go offline than to allow the exploit to continue any longer.

  • Victor September 15, 2014 (1:01 am)

    I was at Fry’s grocery shopping and my card was declined. Drove a couple miles to the nearest chase ATM and same thing. Furious, I called chase and was on hold for 40 min. First person told me it was routine maintenance which made me more upset. Unacceptable to hear because there was no warning. I asked to speak with someone else and they were honest. An error on their end and they’re doing everything they can to fix it and to try again in an hour. I’m closing my account tomorrow!

  • Dan Becker September 15, 2014 (1:29 am)

    I just got a Chase purchase to go through (130am PDT) – I’d been having failures since about midnight.

  • sophista-tiki September 15, 2014 (2:22 am)

    theres this stuff called cash, works every time.

  • Niner September 15, 2014 (7:20 am)

    That stuff called cash requires an ATM -which were also down- because banks are often closed on Sunday.

  • sc September 15, 2014 (7:51 am)

    Just a friendly reminder about living in earthquake country!
    If the electricity is knocked out, such as after an earthquake – ATM’s, gas station pumps and cash registers in stores won’t be working. Your bank card will be useless.
    Everyone should have at least $50 in small bills and a roll of quarters tucked away in your car or house. Try to have a half tank of gas in your car because even if you have cash the gas pumps will not work without electricity.
    Be ready to be on your own for “3 days 3 ways”

  • Kit September 15, 2014 (7:57 am)

    Chase now has a security breach notice on their site. WSB, tip of the hat to you, once again.

  • sam-c September 15, 2014 (8:21 am)

    It’s unbelievable that a company like Chase could have something like this happen and there’s no mention of it. There’s not even acknowledgement of it on their website now.

    I would be furious if I had done a bunch of grocery shopping (like Victor) and this this happened. I don’t usually have cash on hand (like enough cash to buy a week’s worth of groceries). I’d be especially furious after walking all over the store to pick out everything.

  • Nicki September 15, 2014 (8:25 am)

    The security breach has been on there site for approximately a week

  • wsborn&bred September 15, 2014 (8:26 am)

    Not the first time Chase has had issues during one of their routine maintenance times. My card declined AT my wedding to pay the balance of the reception dinner even though I had more than enough money in the account. I spent an hour on the phone with customer service people who apparently could “see” that I had enough money but couldn’t do anything to fix it because the system was down for maintenance. I had to ask for money from our guests because my account was completely unaccessible. That was two years ago and I am still angry. Instead of an apology, Chase told me I should have been carrying several thousand dollars in cash around as a backup plan in case my card didnt work. Infuriating.

  • Gene September 15, 2014 (8:26 am)

    This is what I found on Chase website just now-not much info.
    Maybe what happened last night wasn’t related to this?

    Important Update on Cyber Security

    We want to update you on the cyber attack we uncovered recently. Our investigation is ongoing, but here’s some of what we know to date:

    •We have not seen any unusual fraud activity related to this matter.
    •Customers are not liable for any unauthorized transaction on your account that you promptly alert us to.

    We are sorry that this happened and for any uncertainty this may cause you. Your security is a top priority and we will continue to communicate with you as needed.

    • WSB September 15, 2014 (9:19 am)

      Yes, that was related to something in late August and was indeed on their webpage days ago. Whatever happened overnight was a distinct event, whether related to “cybersecurity” or not. Just getting back into gear for the day, the Chase media-relations contact for consumer banking replied at 5:57 am to say she’d get back to us “shortly” – nothing since then, yet, and nothing in their social-media channels.

  • sam-c September 15, 2014 (10:10 am)

    re MP and CJ’s posts- WSB is the only one who can look up their IP’s locations, etc (can you?) but the remark about Arizona makes it seem like they’re ‘not from around here.’ how would they know that WSB is not just a blog, if they ended up here by googling for info about why they can’t use their debit card? if they end up here for the first time, look at header and the name of the web page, what else do they have to go by in calling it a blog?

    • WSB September 15, 2014 (10:29 am)

      My note was meant more in reassurance that they didn’t just land on some random personal website (given our rather spartan design) since indeed, they wouldn’t know. After seven years and tens of thousands of stories, we have fairly good Google ranking and, as was the case with the Northern Lights (or lack of them) the other night, some people turned up here from Google News. – TR

  • MrsB September 15, 2014 (11:09 am)

    Just used my Chase Southwest credit card at Fred Meyer in Burien; no problem.

    • WSB September 15, 2014 (11:20 am)

      It was supposed to be fixed by early morning, so, glad to hear that.

  • ACG September 15, 2014 (11:24 am)

    TR- I keep trying to think of another word that implies a more “small professional news organization” that begins with the letter “B”- so that the WSB acronym can still be used. But I haven’t come up with anything yet. Maybe someone else out there has a more expansive vocabulary than I do? Tracy, if you wanted- you could totally re-brand yourself so that the name truly does describe the awesome job that you, Patrick and all the other contributors do. We’d all get used to the change. I remember when Seafirst bank was taken over by Bank of America. It was weird at first getting used to the new name, but everyone adapted. We would all adapt as well to the new “West Seattle _________” (whatever new name you decide on). It is scary to change a name though once you have built a successful business with a good reputation.

    • WSB September 15, 2014 (11:37 am)

      We have a couple. Unfortunately, the last line is the big problem, and we have some others to fix (like the technical underpinnings of the now aged, in Internet years, web workings) first!
      .
      Meantime, I just got a call back from a Chase rep. Adding to story.

  • LivesInWS September 15, 2014 (1:01 pm)

    Heh. I had my credit union card declined recently, whenever I tried to use it, even though there was plenty in the account. Two days later my husband’s card started to have the same problem. When I called the credit union, they said that no requests had gotten through to them (!) and they showed no declines of payments. And to try to use it again. So I did, and got the same embarrassing declines. I called the credit union back and told them to send us new cards, which they did. New cards worked fine.

    Now I wonder if it wasn’t some security problem which we were the first to experience, or they just didn’t want to admit it.

  • Louie DeShazer September 15, 2014 (3:22 pm)

    Was unable to use chase debit/credit card last night @ 9:00 @ Safeway in Sweet Home, Oregon. Pretty sad when you go to buy groceries and diapers for your infant, and there’s no warning that our cards will be declined, even with sufficient funds available. ATM’s also declined cards. Was frustrating to say the least. I was fortunate, in that I lived close by, and had a checkbook… (Yes ppl still use these..lol) Thank you Safeway for processing checks still!! Also, thanks for posting the story WSB.

  • zark September 15, 2014 (4:19 pm)

    Firstly, just wow to WSB, you scooped like everyone – literally – everyone.
    Amazing, I know I deserve zero credit, but I still brag about having the best community blog in the country :)
    Just let WSB take over all the news, we’d all be better off.

    This was embarrassing. Declined at safeway, and the clerk just starts barking “GOT ANOTHER CARD!? GOT ANOTHER CARD?!” as I’m stammering – the, account, should be fine – well, I uh… duh.. – then slammed it on a credit card.
    So those $80 worth of groceries will end up costing me $437 since I am unable to understand the principals of a credit card, and continue to think “free money!” like I “learned” back in college. Seriously though, it was embarrassing, thanks Chase!

  • j September 16, 2014 (7:50 am)

    No one should ever be embarrassed by having a card declined. For the cashier it happens repeatedly throughout the day and they don’t really care what your bank’s issue is- and it very rarely has anything to do with your credit. Their interest is to keep their line moving. So, do yourself and the cashier and the line behind you a favor and try twice in case it was a one time glitch then say “that’s odd” and pull out another form of payment.

  • Shadrina September 21, 2014 (12:57 pm)

    Seriously afraid to go into my account every since the alert. But its working just strangly.

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