VIENNA, Va. — Navy Federal Credit Union experienced a widespread service outage that prevented thousands of members from accessing its mobile app and other digital banking services, with the world’s largest credit union saying it was working to resolve the disruption.
Navy Federal acknowledged the outage in a post on X as reports of problems surged during the afternoon.
“ALERT: We’re experiencing a service outage that’s impacting service to members,” Navy Federal said in its post. “Our team is utilizing all available resources to help address the issue. Thank you for your patience.”
The problems began to increase at about 4:05 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, Aug. 12, according to Downdetector data. Reports reached about 3,300 at 5:05 p.m. before declining to roughly 1,000.
A later report from Downdetector, said more than 7,000 reports of problems had been submitted as of 2:19 p.m. Pacific time, or 5:19 p.m. Eastern. Downdetector collects reports submitted by users, meaning the figures indicate the volume of reports and do not necessarily represent the total number of members affected.
Concentrated on Mobile Devices
The outage appeared to be concentrated primarily in the $203-billion Navy Federal’s mobile services.
More than 67% of the problems reported to Downdetector involved the credit union’s mobile app, while 21% involved login problems and 7% involved mobile banking, according to the Hindustan Times.
Members also took to social media to report that the disruption was preventing them from conducting banking transactions. One member said the outage prevented access needed to unlock a card, while another questioned whether Navy Federal would extend its online business-day hours because the member was unable to deposit a check.
It was not immediately clear what caused the outage or whether Navy Federal had determined how many members were affected.
Outage at a Sensitive Time
The disruption came at a potentially sensitive time for some military members who receive their pay through Navy Federal. According to the credit union’s 2026 military pay calendar, Aug. 13 is the date funds become available for members with Free Active Duty Checking accounts receiving active-duty net pay, while regular military funds are scheduled to become available Aug. 14.
Navy FCU has more than 15-million members.
The outage comes at the same time TruStage is working to restore its systems, as the CU Daily reports here.
