Name: Benefits OnLine
Rating: 3.05954 (739 reviews)

User Reviews for Benefits OnLine

3.06 out of 5

739 Ratings

3 years ago, Gaspatchosoup

Tech

So have decided to try and do a withdrawal as it’s a tough time right now but couple issues with the app and company. Call the company and after spending 10 minutes on the phone going in circles with the auto system I’m told offices aren’t open. So I try the app. You go to the loan section and a big box with a red triangle is like you have no money to take a loan yet I’m seeing that I have money so don’t know what that’s about. Also even though it shows that box it still lets you do everything to try to get a loan even though you can’t get one. Maybe don’t have the selections available if you don’t qualify. Then try to do a withdrawal and I don’t want to do it as a hardship and I’m fine with paying to take my money out but it forces me to take a hardship. They then mail you a check. Most people in a hardship might and prob need money quicker than a paper check. Like how about doing direct deposit. Definitely won’t be using this company if I ever leave my job and set up a 401k on my own. I absolutely hate apps and companies that all of a sudden out of nowhere tell me that I have to reset up Face ID. This app tells me Touch ID and I don’t have that on my phone. I don’t always have my passwords next to me and I can’t remember them all as I make some pretty long and stupid passwords. Looking at some stuff at my bank come November or when ever I choose my insurance stuff this year I will be canceling my 401k and just doing something with my bank.

4 years ago, kingsontrial

Sub par.

Not user friendly at all. I had a Union 401k and have an ira with better apps and websites. I’ve tried moving funds and balancing accounts and the app and website are both junk. But it is what my company offers, so here I am. If you want customer support, better take some time in the middle of the week. Surfers hours bankers pay.

3 years ago, macthus

Pathetic

The worst financial services app I have ever used. Forced to use as it is the choice of my employer. The user experience is horrible, app performance is slow, the application has extremely limited features in mobile platform and forces to revert to desktop website even to perform basic actions like viewing transaction history of an ESPP account. Services are also horrible, with delays in vesting RSUs without any proper heads up/communication; leaves you wondering what happened to your equity rewards. My vested RSUs disappeared from my account, decreasing my net account value, no information in the mobile app explaining what happened, no messages in the message center, only a small alert box in the website (if you know where to look) that says it will be made available again for transaction no later than 8 days AFTER the vesting date. I tried linking an external checking account that required a validation by entering a small sum of money that was deposited there - except there were no deposits. Compared to my previous wealth management services from another reputed bank, the quality and service here is light years behind.

2 years ago, nav-id

Very buggy/confusing platform

Merrill website and the app has been one of the worst financial websites + apps that I have ever used. The system is very confusing. Finding stuff that you want through the website or the app is fairly hard, from easy settings such as paperless delivery to selling shares. It is also very buggy, like telling you that it successfully placed an order to sell market shares but later you find out that it hasn’t sold any shares and you lost money buggy! There is also mistmatch in behavior between the website and the app, there has been times that the website has shown me “you are selling too many shares” alert and doesn’t let me to trade 10 shares, but I was able to perform the same action usin the app successfully. Overall if you are a company looking into using Merrill platform, please don’t create this world of pain for your employees and yourself, and just go with any other platform since they have been the worst in my experience.

3 years ago, Walqraini

Terrible App - no visibility into finances and terrible functionality.

This may be one of the worst apps I have come across, easily the worst financial app. If I wasn’t forced to use it by my employer I would never migrate to Merrill. First, the app gives you no visibility into any dividends earned from your holdings. Accordingly you have no way of knowing your cash balance without calling a representative or waiting until the end of the year for your tax firm. Secondly the app does not show you your balance after you sell a holding/position. So if you sold a stock you can not see the cash value of the sale in the app. Again you have to call to determine your balance and have them send a check not even a direct deposit. Simply unacceptable.

1 year ago, Bobbris

I cannot use full site with my I-phone 13

About 5 days ago, my phone stopped being able to use the full site any more. This is the case whether I use the benefits online app or if I use the website. If at any point I click the link labeled full site, it goes to the correct location but the blue portion of the site blinks and never stops and never allows me to entire my logon info. This problem does not happen when I use my desktop computer. I’ve been using the full site link for more than 10 years without such a problem. Please fix this malfunction. I’ve loaded the lastest version of the app from the Apple App Store.

3 years ago, Ajuleus

ML needs to step up

I’ve had this app since ML first released it years ago and it has always been sub par. If you want to know why, just look at Bank of America’s 10K filings and you’ll note the low level of investment in their systems. Now I will say that when I need assistance and call ML, the associates are very helpful and get what I need done, done. I’m stuck with ML’s app as a result of my past employment with Bank of America, (ML’s parent Corp), but continue to hope that ML will roll out an app that works, or just close it down and move back to having Fidelity run the Benefit program like they used to.

6 months ago, Manager of uplay

Sweet

Pretty simple to use, easy to navigate across the interface. I wanted to see my 401k and immediately made an account and got everything setup working 5 minutes. I saw all my 401ks and financial descriptions. Also were able to connect my bank account for withdrawals within minutes. Well done

3 months ago, Savy52

Works great!

I don’t know why I see all these reviews saying it doesn’t work because it works perfectly fine for me. I invested in a Roth IRA through them and it works great. I did take it out because I needed money and I had no problem with that either. Overall it’s a great app!

12 months ago, Zelduck

Sub-par finance app

Navigation buries functionality in menus. You have to use the full site (and not the mobile web view) to access certain functionality like rebalancing your account (here called "change how my entire account is invested", admittedly a useful feature). For some reason, performance defaults to 1 year and maxed out at 2 years (via a poorly designed date ux). You'd think a financial firm would want you to access different return windows easily like virtually any other finance app on the market so you can look at a 5 or 10 or "ALL" year return when the market tanks and your short term returns are bad (as they inevitably will be during any severe downturn). If it wasn't for my employer choosing this for my 401k, I wouldn't use it.

3 years ago, Meepa44

Not user friendly. Data is difficult to find.

This app is really difficult to use and a company like Merrill do better than this. Doing something as seemingly simple as viewing a stock grant and reviewing a calendar of vesting dates is a convoluted mess to navigate. There should be an dashboard that shows all your holdings and an easy to read vesting schedule organized by year. It’s amazing that something so simple would elude the devotees of this app. Would love to see some improvements in the near future.

2 months ago, Blubbberducky

Terrible

The app is slow and it takes five actions to get to anything useful. There’s a lot that you can’t do on the app that you can only do on a web browser. Also, every month it asked me to sign up for electronic delivery just so that it can try to get me to sign up for their promotional emails. I have everything else turned to electronic delivery except I don’t want to receive their promotional emails. The UI is unintuitive and cluttered. Using this app is an awful experience.

2 years ago, 76354222

Unable to reset password

Not sure why this app is not recognizing my Face ID and password. It seems that this app resets credentials to login. The worse part is when I am trying to change password, after entering all my information to the point of getting a text or phone call, the send button on this screen is frozen or does not respond to the touch. I wonder if the app works with the latest iPhone’s OS.

4 years ago, Hallor

Great Start

Awesome update. Has all of the relevant information that I need and was unable to get before. One suggestion would be to have the ability to customize my Home Screen when the app loads. For example I want my account summary page up instead of the dashboard view. Would love for that to happen.

2 years ago, pcola_matt

Constant note to combine accounts

Very frustrating having to constantly dismiss reappearing note about combining Bank of America accounts. My 401k account with previous employer was much better using the Principal app. Much more user friendly.

3 years ago, Hayseed2014

Dazed and confused

You guys recently updated this app and you ruined it. Why? It was fine as is. It opened quickly and I could easily find my balance and historical info. Not anymore. You seem so much more focused on goals? I know what my goals are; I don’t need your help with that. I need to see balances, investment holdings, and fund performance; that’s it. I’ll continue to access the web version. I suggest you trash the current format and return to what you had!

2 years ago, Killroi99

Literally unusable

App will not work AT ALL unless you update your iOS. My phone is unable to update, and getting a new iPhone is outside of my means financially. This app is only designed to be used by much more modern ($) iPhones, so if you NEED to use this app to work with Merril Lynch, do not use their service. If you use their web service from now on like I’ll need to, be very careful to make sure you’re on their site and not some fake phishing site.

2 years ago, VMtheOCD

Always getting locked out

This app is constantly getting me locked out of my account it’s absolutely useless most of the time then I have to call a stupid 800 number constantly to get my account unlocked… just set up use with personal information instead of the stone aged idea of security questions… I have my social and all that but it’s not good enough because I can’t remember the name of the road I used to go shopping on???

9 months ago, jay.galvez

HORRIBLE

I can’t make a rollover because it’s stuck in a loop where it tells me to endorse the check but it won’t take me to the next screen to take a picture. Customer service is USELESS. THEY “expedited” my issue and 2 months in, and I haven’t received ANY communication at all. The worse part is that I missed out on a significant bounce in the market so, thanks a bunch benefits online app for making the easy, super inconvenient

2 months ago, Joeeeee9618

Confusing Navigation

Confusing layout. Difficult to get to the correct menu and it changes through the transaction lifecycle. Unclear status once actions have been taken. Low-use menus are prominent while important options are buried layers deep. Need to rethink the navigation experience. I use several banking and brokerage apps daily and this is noticeably worse than all others

2 years ago, 11yr user

Used to have useful information but now is terrible

A stupid voice feature and graphical views that seem to try to obscure the real performance of your investments. If the old information is still available it is waaaay too hard to navigate to and it makes me nervous about keeping my money with them. Are they trying to hide something about fees or other info?

3 years ago, AB148

Unable to even log in

Returns an error every time I attempt to log in, not associated with a password error. I'm guessing it's due to the fact that I use a VPN. Which is completely unacceptable. I'm trying to increase my online security, yet ML instead puts their own interests above mine. I will not process any transactions or do any further business with ML until this is resolved.

5 months ago, l.m.cahill

New version took away too many features

The app has continued to degrade and remove features over the last two years. Make the App Great Again! Specific examples: detailed account activity; contribution history; employer/employee contribution split; projected retirement balances, etc.

3 years ago, Shortieyo

Bug with Face ID

So this version has some bug where every time I open the app I have to reactivate Face ID. Never had this problem before

4 years ago, Gustavo's iTunes

Worthless App

There is no function to trade in your self direct account.... it’s almost as if they don’t want you to be able to manage your money. It worthless unless all you want to do is look at your account info from a day before info. Even trying to post a review you have to come up with a fake nickname because it tells you someone else already used it.

5 years ago, LSSR22

Meh

I’m not sure what all the raving is about. This is for the most part simply a tool for looking at balances. When it says “limited” transactions it means “severely limited.” Its barely more functional than getting a PDF of your account status. It doesn’t come close to replacing accessing an account via a computer.

5 months ago, LiMark

The worst

I have my job 401k on this account and considering that I can log in and not see my account is ridiculous the worst app ever I have deleted the app (6) times and relogged in still the same results I absolutely hate this and it's nothing I can do about and I can remove my money until I leave my jod

3 years ago, FrustratedWithBadApp

Not good

Seriously made it worse with mid-September upgrade. Usability is much worse, throwing things in my face that are irrelevant with no ability to configure. I can only hope, since my 401k is captive at Merrill Lynch / Bank of America, someone comes to their senses. It is so bad I would move brokerage firms if I could. I guess I will go back to browser and ditch this app.

5 years ago, AZ Hokie

Weak..

This app will let you see your account balances, but that’s about it. I was remote and wanted to sell stocks, impossible through either the mobile app or mobile web browser. Being able to execute stock transactions should be a basic feature..

3 years ago, mljuarez13

Ridiculous

I’m not having a hardship. I no longer work at the job I was working at. I want to cancel my account and either transfer the money or just take it out. The app can’t obviously do that so I call the company like the app informs me to do. I have been waiting for 2 1/2 hours to speak to someone.

9 months ago, PlagueArchitect

Can’t even login

I just made an account but after downloading the app and attempting to login it keeps telling me my credentials are incorrect and has me change them. It’s made me change my password three times but I can sign in on my desktop just fine 🙄 app is unusable

3 years ago, McCoyrpb

Be better

The app has way too much detail on the 401k app and it is meaningless . No one cares was what pre match for a fund or post match . If I want that, let me drill down. I want the fund, amount, %growth/decline and then overall portfolio aggregated data, including contributions, dividends and fees to date. Worst financial app that I deal with.

4 years ago, tominatl

Not throughly tested...

With this new version of the mobile application the programmers seem to have gotten the font size wrong. The fonts are so much bigger that the words that are displayed no longer fit in the display window are are often cut off. The functionality is about the same but it implementation is lacking.

8 months ago, Funny moma

Not the same password

For some reason the login I created on the website and the login on the app, is different. Make it make sense!! It made me change it on the app, but when I logged out and put in the new password, it once again, didn’t take. How Sway?

4 years ago, Soitsme

Nothing

Have had this app for a couple of weeks now since my employer moved my 401k here. Utterly useless. All it says is the total amount and what it’s invested in. That’s it. What is shown in the third photo of the app description does not exist on this app. It does not show your contribution, your employer’s match if any. Nothing! And Useless! One star is being gracious.

3 years ago, PaulJr86

Doesn’t remember my password

Every time I log in, it doesn’t remember my password, so when I reset it to what I thought I reset it to, it says “that password has already been used.” Can’t get anything done on the app anyways that you need to do online so yes this is a waste of time.

6 months ago, ShaunRLynch

Bad app, useless even. Their website isn’t much better!

No idea what this app is supposed to be? It takes as long to log in as to use the website (2F authentication every TIME!), you can’t trade or do much of anything in the app. So why? Just close this hot mess down already.

5 years ago, DarkVenom

Terrible useless app

You can’t do any trades with this app. I can get all the info online so why bother with this app? The full site on iOS does not work for trading anyways. So all this app does (and the online full site does on iOS) is it gives stock values. Pathetic design by inexperienced software and product folks. Learn from UBS folks for that matter.

5 years ago, Andynator9919

This app should not have been approved for the App Store

Can’t login. Can’t reset my password. Also their password requirements do not *allow* for special characters, so if I wanted to create a strong password, I’m actually not allowed to. Additionally, their App Support page does not provide any support or contact info unless you login.

5 years ago, bsgvfl

Definitely still need a computer

Functions that the app gives you work well, however there’s no option to trade securities in a self directed brokerage acc. It’s still necessary use the full desktop site on mobile

5 months ago, DJ3255

Never Loads

I’ve had this app installed for several years and in the last recent 4 months, nothing loads when navigating thru the app. Blank screens on everything. Could you fix this PLS? Ty

1 year ago, 185337942783257842

Useless bank and app

What good is a retirement account that you are supposed to spend 30 years contributing too when the bank and app only lets you see past performance for the past two years only. 😂 What a joke and it’s called Merrill

1 year ago, Niervid

Horrible app and sign in

The app is such a hassle, it will randomly boot me off and then it will ask me to answer 4 security questions to sign back in and if I mess up disables my account and it takes forever on the phone for them to reactivate my account.

2 years ago, elizabet3214

DO NOT USE!!!

Do not use this app. It is a fake app made up by scammers. If you forget your password it will ask for you SSN. After submitting your SSN it will ask if you want your passcode sent to you via text or phone call but will not actually send. Now someone in India has my SSN. Thanks a lot Apple.

5 months ago, Cumminsdude59

Update the app

It would be nice if I could actually get into my plan to see the performance and update my contribution amount, but it won’t even load the page

2 years ago, Harlequin11

Done with this app now

I just wait till my updates go out then I can’t use my apps but my phone works absolutely perfect even my battery so why would I get a new phone for apps when it’s all set up. It’s a tragedy they do this just a huge tragedy

4 years ago, Michaelcosmos

Limited functionality

This app makes it very hard to see all balances, does not show a daily update of prices in individually managed stock holdings portion of account, yesterday’s balance is show for all of those holdings. To see an update, it is required to log into full website.

3 years ago, on becoming

Every time I need it my password has been locked

Only check this every so often and every time I have to go and reset my password, just to check the balance. Once in the app, it’s really less than a modern finance app.

2 months ago, craig6$&542

Terrible App

This is the worst app. You might get a match at your company, but after dealing with terrible interface and constant questions you will 100% cancel. Please, if you are company use Fidelity. Make it easier for us users.

7 months ago, thejacobphillips

Can’t sign in

I made an account on their website and was instructed to download the app. I keep trying to sign in and it just has me do it over and over and never lets me into the account. Needs fixed

Description

You don’t need a computer to keep up with your employer-sponsored benefit plans. With the free* Benefits OnLine® Mobile app, you’ll have easy access to your benefit plans with Merrill, virtually 24/7. Find out how easy it is to: Manage your accounts • Check your account balances, detailed holdings and account history • Manage your investments and update contribution rates • View your Account Summary with interactive graphics • Request a loan, withdrawal or rollover Access financial information • Review U.S. & Global market data • Add securities to your device watchlist • Monitor major market securities Personalize your experience • Stay up to date with My To-Do List and Alert messages • Have your Merrill investment account balances and Bank of America account balances displayed along with your benefit plan accounts • Choose “online deliver” for statements and confirmations Stay Secure • Set up Touch ID/Face ID to log in securely without using your password** • Visit our Privacy & Security page to learn about the features we offer to help protect you and your accounts IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Benefits OnLine® app for iPhone is available to clients who have access to the benefits.ml.com website. Some of the features and services available on benefits.ml.com are not available within this app. Please access the website to access all functionality. Select Application License Agreement and review the amended Terms & Conditions, which apply to the website and all mobile devices. By downloading and using this app, you agree to the current Terms & Conditions. *You may be charged access fees from your wireless service provider depending on your mobile device. Please check with your wireless service provider for details on specific fees and charges. **Certain devices are eligible for enrollment in Touch ID/Face ID. The images included are for illustrative purposes only. Merrill Privacy and Security: ml.com/privacy Merrill makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Incorporated (MLPF&S), a registered broker-dealer and Member Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation. Insurance and annuity products are offered through Merrill Lynch Life Agency Inc., a licensed insurance agency and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation. Merrill is the marketing name for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, and Merrill Edge®, both of which are made available through Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Incorporated (MLPF&S). Merrill Edge is available through Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Incorporated (MLPF&S), and consists of the Merrill Edge Advisory Center (investment guidance) and self-directed online investing. Trust and fiduciary services are provided by U.S. Trust, a division of Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC, or U.S. Trust Company of Delaware. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation. Banking products are provided by Bank of America, N.A. and affiliated banks, Members FDIC and wholly owned subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation. MLPF&S and Bank of America, N.A. make available investment products sponsored, managed, distributed or provided by companies that are affiliates of Bank of America Corporation. Investment products, insurance and annuity products: • Are Not FDIC Insured • Are Not Bank Guaranteed • May Lose Value • Are Not Deposits • Are Not Insured by Any Federal Government Agency • Are Not a Condition to Any Banking Service or Activity © 2024 Bank of America Corporation. All Rights Reserved Benefits OnLine is a registered trademark of Bank of America Corporation.