Bank of America website problems continue

NEW YORK — Bank of America’s homepage and online banking service were still experiencing problems Friday afternoon, after the bank said a slowdown and other issues had been fully resolved.

A message on the homepage said that page was temporarily unavailable, and customers in New York and California had problems signing into their accounts and conducting business.

Some visitors who tried to sign onto their accounts were greeted with the message that the site was “operating slower than usual” and that the bank was working to restore service.

A spokeswoman for the bank, Tara Burke, said earlier Friday that the site had been fully restored after experiencing difficulties between 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Eastern. Burke was not immediately available to explain the later difficulties.

Burke declined to say why the earlier problems occurred or say how widespread they were. She said customers who couldn’t sign onto their accounts still could bank via text message, at ATMs and at branches. She said the problems weren’t the result of hacking.

The disruption came a day after the bank said it would start charging a $5 monthly fee for debit card purchases.

Bank of America offers customers a free eBanking account if they do all their banking online and at ATMs. Customers are charged an $8.95 monthly fee for the account if they also use branch locations.