Updates Coming to ESL Live Chat Banking

April 28, 2025

ESL is making changes to Live Chat Banking. Because these changes primarily affect only Chat’s technical interface, users, like you, will notice only a small number of minor differences compared to what you’re accustomed to seeing today.

Dates:

The updates will be live beginning on Wednesday, May 7, with no interruption of service.

What’s NOT Changing:

  • Live Chat Banking will continue to be an easy, secure way to bank with ESL.
  • Members will continue to be connected to ESL Chat representatives located here, at our Rochester headquarters.
  • ESL online banking services and functionality will not change.

What’s Changing:

Practically everything you experience when chatting with us will remain the same. Still secure, still convenient and intuitive to use, there are a couple of minor changes that we would like to call out for you.

Initiating a Chat

Today

When you initiate a chat today, you first see a field for entering your name and a brief message with our hours and our ABA routing number. You are then prompted to provide a purpose for your chat by selecting options from a drop-down menu.

After Update

When you initiate a chat after the updates are installed, you will be presented with a message that says “this is the beginning of your conversation with us. Please send a message to get started,” and will be prompted to enter your name.

Once you’ve typed your name, you’ll be prompted to select the purpose for your chat from several buttons (instead of selecting from a drop-down menu). Once you have completed this, you will be connected to an agent and the chat will proceed in much the same way it does today.

New ESL Live Chat Banking screen shot examples

Finding the Chat Button in ESL Online Banking

Today

When in ESL Online Banking today, you can initiate Chat by clicking on a tab at the top right side of the page.

After Update

Once the updates have been installed, this tab will be replaced with an icon button that will be located at the bottom right-hand corner of the page (like how our web accessibility button appears on the bottom right of pages when not logged in to online banking). There will be no changes to the experience for connecting to chat in Mobile Banking.

Screen of of new live chat icon in bottom right corner of personal online banking

FAQ’s

How will these changes affect my experience using ESL Live Chat Banking?

Most of the changes we are making with this update occur “behind the scenes” and will have little effect on your experience.

There will be a few minor visual changes, and we wanted to call these out to assure users that while they may notice that things look a little different, they can still connect easily and securely to our local ESL representatives.

Does this update mean ESL is moving their Live Chat Banking function out of Rochester?

No. Our Chat representatives, like the rest of our Contact Center, will continue to serve customers in our Rochester, NY headquarters.

Will Live Chat Banking have any interruptions in service?

No. The updates will be installed overnight between Tuesday, May 6, and Wednesday, May 7, so Live Chat Banking will continue to be available during its normal business hours.