VyStar Credit Union on day seven without access to online and mobile banking

VyStar Credit Union customers are now on day seven without mobile app and online banking.

Action News Jax first told you earlier this week as tensions rose when the online platform was down two days longer than expected, and the problems continue on Thursday for customers.

“Someone needs to be able to explain why this all happened,” VyStar customer Ken Caplan said.

Ken Caplan said he has been a VyStar Credit Union customer since the 1980s.

Now he’s considering making a switch to a different bank after he said he’s had multiple issues with VyStar. The icing on the cake — day six of the online and mobile banking outage.

“Trying to stop recurring payments, trying to start up new payments has been impossible,” Caplan said.

Customers said the banking outage has gone longer than expected

VyStar officials told us the credit union had a scheduled outage on Friday to convert its online bank platform.

Customers said it was supposed to be back up on Sunday. Now here we are on Thursday.

VyStar officials are encouraging customers to conduct business in person for now.

Dominique Hamilton visited the ATM at the branch off Old St. Augustine Road Thursday morning.

“A lot of people are pretty mad that they can’t even look at their balance and know what they have in their account,” Hamilton said.

Off Beach Boulevard was the same scene. Many VyStar customers lined up at the ATM.

“It’s a little bit much because you can’t really check your accounts and stuff like that,” Brian O’Neal said.

“It’s not pragmatic to have the system down,” Lorrinn Woods said.

Action News Jax has received repeated emails from upset VyStar customers.

An out-of-state customer said he relies on mobile banking to assist his disabled mother in Green Cove Springs.

Another member said he was unable to transfer funds to his VyStar credit card because of the outage.

For Caplan and most everyone else, the big question is when is it going to be over.

“I think right now we’re just wondering when it’s going to end,” Caplan said.

VyStar officials told us on Wednesday that the outage is not due to a ransomware or cyber-attack.

We asked officials to sit down for an interview. Instead, the credit union sent out a video statement.

In it, officials said the credit union felt confident it was ready to launch the new platform.

“In fact we delayed the launch of the project several times to allow for what we expected to be the best possible performance,” VyStar Credit Union Chief Member Experience Officer Joel Swanson said. “Unfortunately, real-world behavior presented unforeseen challenges. As much as we would like to quickly present members with the new online bank experience, we need to first ensure the platform accurately reflects the data in our core systems.”

Swanson said the credit union is exploring every option to get the online platform back up and running.

“We are also proactively waiving VyStar fees for members during this time frame,” Swanson said.

As for the online system, they said they are working on fixing that first and then bringing back mobile banking, but there is no word on how long that will take exactly.

You can watch the full statement here: VyStar Credit Union Online & Mobile Banking Update - May 19th, 2022 - YouTube

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