Thousands of debit card users accidentally charged twice after glitchÂ

An error occurred with a particular brand of card terminal run by Cardnet '“ which is a joint venture between First Data and Lloyds Bank. 

Lloyds Banking Group have apologies and said that the issue happened last Wednesday (August 29) and it caused money to be taken out of accounts twice '“ but only show up as one payment on receipts at many shops, bars and other merchants. 

A statement on the company's website says: '˜Cardnet sincerely apologises for the issue and the inconvenience caused, we continue to work closely with all parties to resolve this issue swiftly.

'˜On Friday 1st September, Cardnet became aware of an incident whereby the settlement file for transactions taken Wednesday 29th August by APACS 40 (standalone terminal) merchants was duplicated and the settlement file for transactions taken Thursday 30th August was consequently not submitted.

'˜This has resulted in merchants receiving incorrect settlement amounts, based on both the duplicate file and late payment of Thursday's funds.

'˜In some cases, this will have been an overpayment of expected settled funds, in others an underpayment.

'˜In addition, and importantly, cardholders (customers) of Cardnet's impacted merchants may also have been debited twice for transactions made on Wednesday.'

Lloyds has said that customers who were charged twice will be refunded. 

BBC News has reported that the majority of people affected by the error were using Visa debit cards. 

With many people from different banks being charged twice after paying at merchants using the Cardnet card terminal machine.