Banking error swipes €3.5m from O2 customer accounts
A banking error meant O2’s direct debits for September were taken out twice from the bank accounts of 22,000 customers.
On average each customer saw €159 too much disappear from their accounts earlier this week, with the total overpayment coming to €3.5m nationwide. Yesterday, the banks pledged to refund the monies and waive any fees if the overpayment caused accounts to become overdrawn.
O2 said it was working with the banks to get the money back to customers — and to ensure the blunder would never be repeated.
But the Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) said the error should never have happened in the first place as the banks ought to have spotted 22,000 overpayments.
“All the excuses will be put forward by the banks but the bottom line is that they do not have strong enough systems to stop this happening,” said CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell.
“And as long as that’s the case consumers will continue to be concerned about what else could happen to their accounts in future.”
O2 said the error had happened with customers who had accounts with the Bank of Ireland but yesterday it emerged account holders with AIB were also affected.
In a statement, Bank of Ireland said the overpayment was a result of an “internal processing error”, which also affected the country’s other banks.
“We will now ensure that all parties affected will be refunded immediately and we will also pay any interest charges or unpaid charges that have been applied to accounts as a result of this error,” said bank spokeswoman Anne Mathews.
“We regret that this incident has occurred, and our key priority is to ensure that parties affected will be refunded.”
The problem affected customers who are on O2’s pay-monthly option and opt to pay their regular bills through a direct debit straight from their current account.
Of O2’s 1.6 million customers, about one in three is on the pay-monthly scheme while the remainder are on the firm’s pay-as-you-go tariff.
O2 has about 500,000 pay-monthly customers, of whom 22,000 personal and business subscribers were affected by the banking blunder.
O2 spokesman Diarmuid O’Neill said: “Those customers affected have started to be refunded for the incorrect debit amount, and O2 is working with Bank of Ireland to ensure this process is completed as quickly as possible.”
