diff --git a/R/getSymbols.R b/R/getSymbols.R
index 0491f1d2..cf75a19e 100644
--- a/R/getSymbols.R
+++ b/R/getSymbols.R
@@ -725,7 +725,7 @@ function(Symbols,env,return.class='xts',
 
 # getSymbols.FRED {{{
 `getSymbols.FRED` <- function(Symbols,env,
-     return.class="xts", ...) {
+     return.class="xts", timeout=10, ...) {
      importDefaults("getSymbols.FRED")
      this.env <- environment()
      for(var in names(list(...))) {
@@ -742,12 +742,13 @@ function(Symbols,env,return.class='xts',
 
      returnSym <- Symbols
      noDataSym <- NULL
+     ch <- curl::new_handle(timeout=timeout)
 
      for(i in seq_along(Symbols)) {
        if(verbose) cat("downloading ",Symbols[[i]],".....\n\n")
        test <- try({
        URL <- paste0(FRED.URL, Symbols[[i]])
-       fr <- read.csv(curl::curl(URL),na.strings=".")
+       fr <- read.csv(curl::curl(URL, handle=ch),na.strings=".")
 
        if(verbose) cat("done.\n")
        fr <- xts(as.matrix(fr[,-1]),
diff --git a/man/getSymbols.FRED.Rd b/man/getSymbols.FRED.Rd
index 2ce130cb..43c63b4d 100644
--- a/man/getSymbols.FRED.Rd
+++ b/man/getSymbols.FRED.Rd
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ additional getSymbols \sQuote{methods}.
 getSymbols.FRED(Symbols,
                 env,
                 return.class = "xts",
+                timeout=10,
                 ...)
 }
 %- maybe also 'usage' for other objects documented here.
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ getSymbols.FRED(Symbols,
                        the names of each symbol to be loaded}
        \item{env}{ where to create objects. (.GlobalEnv) }  
        \item{return.class}{ class of returned object }  
+       \item{timeout}{ timeout for the call in seconds }  
        \item{\dots}{ additional parameters }
 }
 \details{