Citi Contends With Mobile App Outage, Directs Users to Website

Citibank has resolved an outage of its mobile app about a day after it was first reported.

The official U.S. customer service account of Citi shared this update in a post on X Thursday (Jan. 16) at 5:44 a.m. Pacific time.

“Our mobile app is operational now,” the post said. “If you are unable to login, please give us a follow and send us a DM with the account type only you are trying to access. Never post account numbers on social media platforms.”

CNBC reported Wednesday (Jan. 15) that the bank was dealing with technical issues around fraud alerts, long wait times for customer calls to its fraud department, and access to its mobile app.

Citi customers were talking about these problems on X, and hundreds of users flagged the issues on the website DownDetector.com, according to the CNBC report.

Reached by PYMNTS Wednesday, during the outage, Citi said in an emailed statement: “We are experiencing some technical issues with Citi’s mobile app experience, which we are working to quickly resolve. For servicing needs during this time, customers can still log in at Citi.com or call the number on the back of their cards or on their monthly statement.”

The Citi outages reported on DownDetector.com began around 6 a.m. Pacific time Wednesday, peaked at about 1,273 reports higher than normal around 9:30 a.m. and stood at about 527 more than normal around 1:30 p.m., according to the website.

The site said the most reported problems from users were mobile login (85%), online login (10%) and credit card (5%).

In a reply to a customer reporting a problem on X on Wednesday, during the outage, the official U.S. customer service account of Citi said: “We’re aware of the Fraud notification, as well as the long hold time. Our team will let you know when the issue is resolved. Feel free to log into the website via a browser to review any recent activity.”

In another Wednesday reply, the account said: “We are currently looking into this issue you are facing with our mobile app and will let you know once this has been resolved. In the meantime please feel free to try using our full site.”

In a third reply to a customer on Wednesday, it said: “We are currently working on this and ask that you try logging in another 1-2 hours. Please log in via a browser.”

Citi reported in its third-quarter earnings supplementals that its customers continued to move toward digital channels. The bank’s active mobile users were up 8% year over year to 19 million in the third quarter, while its active digital users increased by 5% to 26 million.