UK mortgage lender HBOS has blamed a 'technical error' for mistakenly debiting the accounts of thousands of mortgage customers up to three times on consecutive days recently.
About 7,000 of its Bank of Scotland mortgage customers have been affected, with up to three monthly mortgage payments being withdrawn from their accounts.
Bank of Scotland became aware of the error on October 17, 2006, after borrowers whose payments were due on the 14th, 15th or 16th had another payment taken from their account. Customers incur a GBP40 penalty charge each time a direct debit puts their account in the red.
Bank of Scotland has said that it will rectify the problem in the next few days and will refund all erroneous payments.