If you bank with Absa and one of your cheques bounced this week, here's a possible reason: Absa says a computer glitch similar to a CD getting stuck, caused some clients' debit orders to go down "more than once".
A Personal Finance reader who banks with Volkskas says his Teljoy account was debited 20 times and the transactions took R12 000 off his account.
He picked up the problem when Teljoy left a message on his cellphone to say that his debit order was taken off more than once, but that it was being rectified.
Absa says other accounts affected by the glitch include Metropolitan Life and GSM Cellular.
Len Stander, Assistant General Manager of Group Quality at Absa, says the problem affected about 12 000 clients.
"Our computer people are not eating, drinking or sleeping. They are working around the clock to reverse all the additional debit orders and to refund clients the full amount plus transaction costs and interest lost."
Stander says Absa will also send a letter of apology and explanation to every client who was affected by the glitch.
"We are also looking at how it happened, because we obviously want to prevent a repeat occurrence."