Kyle Chua

Jun 18, 20212 min

DBS Investigating Duplicate Transaction Glitch, Promising Refunds By 20 June

Updated: Aug 21, 2021

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, on Friday, 18 June said it’s investigating a glitch reported by its customers that caused duplicate transactions on a number of credit and debit cards.

The bank added that it is aware of the issue and is already in the process of resolving it, promising customers that it will refund the duplicated charges.

“Please be assured that any duplicated transactions will be refunded. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and seek your understanding,” DBS wrote in a Facebook post.

Many of those who were affected by the duplicate transactions took to the bank’s Facebook page to comment about the incident.

Asyura Irfan, a complainant, told The Straits Times that she, along with her husband and mother, were charged twice for transactions made over the past week.

Irfan said that she was charged $11.70 for a transaction made on Grab on Monday, 14 June. The amount was successfully deducted from her balance on Thursday, 17 June, but she noticed that another $11.70 was deducted on Friday, 18 June.

Her husband was also charged twice for a Giant supermarket transaction on Monday, 14 June. His purchase, which amounted to $29, was successfully deducted from his balance on Tuesday, 15 June, but the same amount was later deducted again on Friday, 18 June. The same thing happened to Irfan’s mother who was charged $54 twice for a transaction made on travel platform Klook.

All three of them used POSB debit cards for the transactions. POSB is a subsidiary of DBS.

“I don’t think it’s a merchant issue as the transactions are from different merchants,” wrote Irfan in a Facebook post.

Those who wanted to check on their accounts were unable to log into the DBS app, with it reportedly going down due to high traffic.

The customer service hotlines of DBS and POSB were similarly unavailable, according to other users on Facebook. “I tried calling POSB and DBS mainline but couldn’t get through,” posted one user.

Some users are also voicing their concerns on how the bank plans to reverse the transactions, asking whether or not the refunds will be automatically credited back to them.

As of writing, it’s not entirely clear yet when those affected by the glitch can expect their refunds. The bank has yet to share any new updates regarding the problem.

DBS has issued a statement on their official Facebook page, assuring their customers that “any duplicated transactions will be refunded automatically by 20 June (Sunday).”