Bank mistakenly cancels direct debits for transferred mortgage customers

AIB has apologised to customers whose mortgage direct debits were cancelled in error recently. 

A statement from the bank read: “We are aware of a small number of customers whose direct debits were cancelled when their accounts moved to AIB following our purchase of Ulster Bank tracker mortgages. We are contacting any customers who had a direct debit cancelled to confirm we are working to resolve this error.

"We have alternative mortgage repayment methods in place for these customers. We want to assure our customers there will be no customer detriment and no credit rating impact where customers mortgage repayment is temporarily delayed due to our error".

"We apologise to our customers for any concern this issue has caused," AIB added. 

This error is the latest in a number of issues involving Irish banks in recent weeks. 

Bank of Ireland apologised last week a for a glitch that led to customers not being able to use their banking services.

Queues then formed at ATMs in various locations on Tuesday night of that week as some people posted on social media to say that they could top up other banking apps or withdraw cash in larger amounts than what they believed was in their accounts.

Images and videos of lengthy queues at ATMs in Ireland made international news, and the outage prompted the Central Bank of Ireland to establish “a full account” of what happened.

The bank described the incident as a "significant technology outage". 

Earlier this month, AIB reassured concerned customers that there would be no change to their monthly repayments after it was reported that they had been undercharged by a previous mortgage provider. 

It is believed the issue arose with a group of customers whose tracker mortgages with Ulster Bank were acquired by AIB when Ulster Bank exited the Irish market earlier this year.

The mortgage holders affected received a letter stating that they had been under-charged on their mortgage for years by Ulster Bank and that their payments would increase in October to cover the difference.

However, in a statement AIB said it would "issue revised letters with corrected payment amounts in the coming weeks". 

AIB reassured customers at the time that they "will not face repayments greater than they had originally expected following the ECB increase".