Benefits OnLine Reviews

by Soitsme

Have had BenefitsOnLine 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 BenefitsOnLine description does not exist on BenefitsOnLine. It does not show your contribution, your employer’s match if any.
Nothing!
And Useless!
One star is being gracious.

by Walqraini

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, BenefitsOnLine 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 BenefitsOnLine 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 BenefitsOnLine . Again you have to call to determine your balance and have them send a check not even a direct deposit.

Simply unacceptable.

by Meepa44

BenefitsOnLine 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 BenefitsOnLine. Would love to see some improvements in the near future.

by Hayseed2014

You guys recently updated BenefitsOnLine 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!

by Mljuarez13

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. BenefitsOnLine can’t obviously do that so I call the company like BenefitsOnLine informs me to do. I have been waiting for 2 1/2 hours to speak to someone.

by VMtheOCD

BenefitsOnLine 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???

by Hsheojdb

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.

by AB148

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.

by Macthus

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.

by FrustratedWithBadApp

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 BenefitsOnLine.

by Tominatl

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.

by LSSR22

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.

by Ajuleus

I’ve had BenefitsOnLine 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.

by AZ Hokie

BenefitsOnLine 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..

by 76354222

Not sure why BenefitsOnLine is not recognizing my Face ID and password. It seems that BenefitsOnLine 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 BenefitsOnLine works with the latest iPhone’s OS.

by McCoyrpb

BenefitsOnLine 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.

by Kingsontrial

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 BenefitsOnLine 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.

by Shortieyo

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

by Pcola_matt

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.

by Hallor

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 BenefitsOnLine loads. For example I want my account summary page up instead of the dashboard view. Would love for that to happen.

by DarkVenom

You can’t do any trades with BenefitsOnLine. I can get all the info online so why bother with BenefitsOnLine? The full site on iOS does not work for trading anyways. So all BenefitsOnLine 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.

by Turk Genci

ML needs to learn how to do maintenance, you can not bring an app or service for hours for your comfort during maintenance. You are responsible for the service for 24/7, this clearly shows how irresponsible their maintenance department is.

by Amy(48

I had been using BenefitsOnLine . iOS moved it offline to save space. I tried to restore BenefitsOnLine and it won’t install.i even went to App Store. Download button is frozen. Frustrating.

by Andynator9919

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.

by Jmartinez102891

Not sure how much longer it will be but Face ID has never worked with BenefitsOnLine regardless what iPhone I install it on and number of times reinstalled. After initial setup Face ID does not work. Asks for passcode to be typed.

by SkimPappa

I really wish my new company used fidelity. Their app is amazing. Going to BenefitsOnLine that doesn’t support iPad and barely shows any information makes me feel like my money is invested in a back alley business being ran out of a car trunk.

Shows account balance. No details on contribution percentages, vested balances, performance history or trends.

Very poor app.

by Bsgvfl

Functions that BenefitsOnLine 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

by Pthero2016!

The application used to allow me to look at the retirement fund. Not it keeps bumping me back and forth between websites and applications. Never used to be like this.

by Alex In Chains

About time.

by Jbird140

Every time I come out there are new features and capabilities. Keep it coming

by Investment Geek

Great APP! Simple to use. Easy to navigate. Has everything I need to review and manage my account

by Cp11011

Wow! BenefitsOnLine looks amazing. Great design, fast, and easy to use. A must have app.

by _outfielder

I had one issue before with BOL but the team reached out to me to fix the issue!

since then, i dont experience any issues with BenefitsOnLine it makes it easy to watch my funds from my phone!!