Citibank Korea Double-Charges Found

An accident occurred where the credit card bills of some 2,000 Citibank Korea clients were withdrawn twice from their accounts.

Citibank Korea announced on December 29 that the December credit card bills of 2,000 clients who had their Citicard bills charged to Woori Bank accounts were charged twice.

The bank experienced communications system failures due to the earthquake in Taiwan and was able to restore the system in one day, but in the process, credit card bills that were charged on December 27 were charged again on December 28.

The bank explained, "This was caused by errors in the communications system that were caused by a natural disaster. We returned the money that was double charged on December 29 and called the clients to apologize."

However, some clients are angry, saying, "Something like this should not have happened."

Mr. Jeon (41), a company worker, said, "I realized on the night of December 28 that I had been charged twice for my credit card bill and immediately called the bank to request that my money be returned, but the person in charge merely told me that I wasn`t the only person experiencing this problem and that I should wait. If I had been in urgent need of the money, it would have caused me great inconvenience."

The bank announced, "We sincerely apologize for the accident that occurred in the process of restoring the system. As soon as we work out the interest for one day, we will make an additional transfer of this amount to the accounts of our clients."

sanhkim@donga.com