Double Debit for Bill Paid by Phone Costs Woman Many Days, Calls

Beth Blankenbaker likes the simplicity of paying her bills over the telephone. So on April 14, she paid her Sage Telecom bill over the phone using her debit card and didn't think twice about it. Until May 6, when she discovered the payment had been taken out of her account again.

A glitch with the company that processes Sage's credit- and debit-card payments caused about 1,500 payments made April 14 and 15 to be charged again the first week of May.

Sage discovered the error and credited customers' accounts, said Joe Davis, vice president for customer relations at the telecommunications company, based in Allen, Texas.