BB&T, SunTrust online banking go down as everyone checks for $1,200 stimulus checks

Swarmed with customers checking for $1,200 in stimulus money from the federal government, many online banking services at SunTrust and BB&T went down Wednesday. Banks across the country reported similar issues.

Some of the issues have been resolved, according to Kyle Tarrance, spokesman for the banks, which merged last year to become Truist. The Charlotte-based bank is “working as quickly as possible to restore all services,” he said.

Stimulus payments from the U.S. government arrived Wednesday for many Americans, which led scores of people to check their bank accounts simultaneously. As the 15th is also a payday for many workers, volume was already elevated, and a rush of activity appeared to be too much for many banks’ infrastructures.

Down websites were also reported for U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Citi, among others, according to Downdetector.

The outage frustrated customers who in many cases need the stimulus to cover rent or other expenses, with many voicing their irritation on social media. Millions of Americans lost their jobs since the pandemic started, and others saw their hours cut, making the stimulus check a vital bridge for many households.

One of the major reasons of the 2019 merger of BB&T and SunTrust was that the combined banks would be able to invest more in technology. In 2018, BB&T suffered a multi-day outage of many bank services, including online banking, after equipment malfunctioned in a bank data center.

In the stimulus package passed last month, Congress chose to send $1,200 to Americans who made less than $75,000 a year. Each dependent child a person has increases the check by $500.

It’s part of a slate of measures designed to help those who have been economically hurt by the wide economic shutdown put in spread to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 1:20 PM with the headline "BB&T, SunTrust online banking go down as everyone checks for $1,200 stimulus checks."