Hundreds of irate AIB customers telephoned the bank's headquarters in Dublin yesterday to seek an explanation for an apparent doubling in their normal direct debit deductions.
The bank, anticipating such an onslaught after discovering a computer error, set up a special helpline to deal with the calls.
"The error arose in the electronic processing of direct debits due for deduction today," a spokeswoman for AIB said. "It meant that monies due to be debited to various customers' accounts would appear to have been deducted twice. In reality, the money was never deducted, since the transactions were not due to take effect until the error had been corrected."
The computer primed the electronic system on Sunday night in respect of direct debits due to be deducted from customers' accounts from yesterday [December 30th\]. The exercise involves running a tape containing details of the accounts and the deductions.
"This was mistakenly done twice," the bank's spokeswoman said. "The IT people knew straight away that a mistake had been made, but unfortunately it takes some time for the procedure to be reversed."
Hence the need for a helpline to placate customers whose bank statements on their home computer screens indicated that they were being debited twice.