Columbia Mobile Banking

The Umpqua mobile app has the same poor design and apparent lack of user testing as their on-line (web) app. In contrast to the bank’s great people and service, the IT side of Umpqua demonstrates a persistent lack of concern for, and investment into, their customer’s time and confidence in their banking experience. My family has been with Umpqua for several years, and I have sent many specific and technically detailed letters to them, but I’ve seen very little improvement in that time. (We’ve explored switching our accounts to other banks, but it’s hard to evaluate a new bank’s user interface without using it for everyday transactions for a while.) If you expect to be able to easily understand what is going on in your checking and savings accounts you will be disappointed in this app. Update (July 2019): I’ve increased my rating from 1 to 2 stars, due to some signs of intelligent life from Umpqua’s the strong sense that that either the people managing, supporting and improving the mobile app don’t actually depend on it to do their own banking (a common malady), or have been using it for so long that they are blind to its obvious infelicities. Anyone with a sense of good interface design who uses the app for the first time could easily come up with dozens of problems, most of them both obvious and easy to fix. The failure to address these usability issues despite user feedback continues to amaze me. Update (April 2025): I’ve increased my rating from 2 to 4 stars, based on numerous interface and usability improvements. It still bugs me that you can view your comments on checks and debit card transactions in the main view of an account’s transactions, but comments on deposits are still buried in a different part of the interface called “Activities”. Go figure.

Nobody gets five stars as nobody is perfect. Four stars is as close as it gets. I was VERY concerned when my local bank got bought out yet again but decided to try them as I abhor change and because it would still be my people…the same ones I have worked years with and I like them so stayed. I do not like the constant updating of the app but aside from that and the inconvenience of switching ownership yet again, the bank feels solid. The service is on par with what I am used to. There are differences that show occasionally but they are not too inconvenient. The only true complaint is the finding of the DEPOSIT tab. This SHOULD be set apart on its own as it is such an integral part of the banking experience. I don’t believe it should be hidden and it feels that way. Aside from that, I have not a single complaint. They hold my money safely and pay who I ask them to pay. I can do most business electronically which is convenience but makes me concerned for the jobs that are inevitably going to be lost when people can use a computer for most things. Thank you Umpqua…for not making me have to go elsewhere.

I have had mobile banking apps before and loved them. At first, I thought this app functioned as well as the rest of them, but it doesn’t. It’s often down with no warning. It displays error messages with annoying frequency but not consistency. Sometimes, it simply tells me I have no accounts to show when I do. I would say this is just an app issue but the servers in the bank and ATMs are down almost as frequently. Which is a shame because the tellers are very friendly and as helpful as they can be with a sub adequate system. In past banking apps, the apps handled maintenance by having a scheduled day and time every week (the SAME day and time every week) to handle updates and fixes. They utilized their alert system and system messages to warn customers of the down times and apologize in advance for the delay. This made it easier as a customer to work around these down times and made mobile banking services run as though they valued the customers needs. I don’t see why this app team doesn’t implement the same courtesy. As it stands this app is clunky and unreliable, which prevents customers from having full faith in the security of their mobile banking experience. I gave two stars because I have to use it due to my work schedule but I don’t like to use it because of the way it runs.