Fidelity Clients Irate Over Website, App Problems

Several thousand Fidelity Investments clients reported problems accessing their accounts online and through applications like Active Trader Pro Wednesday afternoon, during the market’s final trading hour.

At the time, the giant financial services company said it was “working urgently” to fix the trouble.

Downdetector, which monitors financial institution and internet outages, showed 4,208 problem reports for Fidelity around 3:40 p.m. EDT. The baseline for the number of Fidelity trouble reports is three, the site indicates.

Reports appeared to start spiking sometime after 3 p.m. EDT, a graphic on Downdetector shows

“We are aware that customers are experiencing issues with Fidelity.com,  Active Trader Pro (ATP), and our mobile apps. We are working urgently on a resolution. We apologize for  the  inconvenience and appreciate you being a customer,” Fidelity tweeted at 3:45 p.m. EDT and repeated in response to client complaints on X, formerly Twitter.

The problems seemed to be resolved about an hour later.

Shortly before 4:45 p.m. EDT, Fidelity explained in a tweet: “Thank you for reaching out. There was a temporary issue impacting Fidelity’s online platforms today, August 30. All systems are now up and running. If using ATP, please restart the application. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Clients on Downdetector said earlier they could log in but their trading accounts showed no positions or their accounts appeared to be “hidden.”

See: MOVEit Hack Hit These Financial Firms 

“Timing is super critical with trading in brokerage accounts,” one Downdetector user posted. Another reported they’d been on hold over half an hour and didn’t expect to make the market close.

Several complained that this wasn’t the first technical snag they’d encountered recently with their Fidelity accounts.

“Here we go again…down during market hours,” one Downdetector user said.

Around 4:30 p.m., several Downdetector users posted the outage appeared to have been fixed and they could log in again.

Before the problem was ficed, X showed multiple tweets from users expressing frustration over the situation. One asked Fidelity what was going on and where their account was, and posted a screenshot that included a message saying Fidelity was unable to provide brokerage or mutual fund account information.

Fidelity representatives didn’t immediately respond to an email message seeking further comment.

Clients at other financial institutions, including Wells Fargo and PNC Bank, also have posted in recent weeks and months about problems with account access, transfers or missing deposits, or a combination of issues.

Image: Shutterstock