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BB&T customers locked out of their accounts due to "technical issue"

ATLANTA — Customers of one of the biggest banks in the country continue to deal with a massive outage.

BB&T is asking its customers to be patient while they work to restore banking operations.

Several customers told Channel 2's Wendy Halloran that most people live week to week, and on this Friday, which is payday for many, the outage couldn't be any more inconvenient.

Brandy Hendry has banked with BB&T for more than a decade.

“I got my commission check yesterday so I went to check it to make sure everything had cleared and it was in my bank and I haven’t been able to do that,” Hendry said.

A massive outage that started late Thursday still has not been resolved.

A bank spokesman said an equipment malfunction in one of the company's data centers is to blame.

Banking services have been unavailable, which has affected millions of customers.

“I use my debit card for everything and so, yesterday, I actually used my credit card. I don’t use my credit card hardly for anything," Hendry said.

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BB&T said that, at this time, it has no reason to believe the issue is related to cybersecurity.
Hendry told Halloran that she isn't so sure about that.

“I have two young kids and I have savings accounts for both of them and I have their Social Security

Numbers, information attached for them as well. So it’s a concern not just for me but for my kids as well,” Hendry said.

Customer Tommy Bryant told Halloran that he doesn’t like the situation.

“You’re holding my money hostage, basically,” Bryant said.

BB&T has been posting constant updates on its social media accounts but Bryant said that’s not enough.

“Why didn’t they notify their customers?” Bryant said.

ATMs and automated services have started coming back online, but not all services are back to normal.

A BB&T representative sent Halloran a statement, which reads, in part:

“We want to make sure our clients understand some of the information they will see about their accounts has not yet been fully updated. We expect those balances and transactions to become current later today, and we'll continue to provide updates to our clients as that occurs.”