With the coronavirus pandemic impacting the world, it may prevent you from wanting to go to the bank for help. Reaching your bank’s customer service quickly might be difficult to do, especially in the current climate.

The amount of calls have increased while call centers have had to reduce staff in offices and adjust schedules. This contributes to longer wait times on the phone. Continue reading on below if you want to learn how to contact your bank while skipping the long phone wait!

Table of Contents

1. Chat your bank

Some banks offer a live chat function with a representative on their website or mobile app. This is a secure place to ask account-specific questions if you’re logged into your account. Some banks require you to log in before chatting while others let you message while visiting the site. There is little to no wait time with this function as well.

Chats allow representatives to work with multiple customers one-on-one simultaneously. There are also bots who can answer frequently asked questions and direct a customer’s issue to the right agent.

2. Tweet your bank

You could also go to Twitter to skip the phone line. Most banks have a social media presence dedicated to customer service support. You can scroll through other customer inquiries to see if you have similar ones.

3. Message your bank

Messages are immediate or back-and-forth like chats or tweets are, but they are better than waiting on hold. Messages function like emails and you might also find an option to send a message in a form on a bank’s page.

If You Still Need to Call

Remember these tips:

Have any paperwork or information you need ready, whether to verify your identity or to describe your issue.
Time your call when there’s less demand. Early morning or towards the end of a weekday that’s not Monday would be the best.
Ask for the best way to circle back for ongoing issues.

Bottom Line

It feels right to just call the bank when you need help, but in the current pandemic, that might be difficult to do. If you’ve been impacted by COVID-19 and need to contact your bank, skip the long phone lines and use these tips on other ways to contact them. For more posts like this, check out our list of bank guides!