Our article is updated!
Several of our readers have pointed out a problem with Apple Pay: it withdraws money in bulk. We had a reader who had HUF 990 taken from the system twice, then HUF 1990 again. One of our readers reported that their bank card was debited for HUF 2,390 and then HUF 2,990.
Our reader reported the issue to OTP, where he received the response that “they are being contacted by the hundreds,” and according to the bank’s information, the issue was with Apple.
The prosecutor's office reacted
OTP Bank sent the following response to our inquiry: “According to our information, huge and unjustified debits were made on the cards of many bank card issuers in many banks. Our specialists immediately took the necessary measures.”
Apple has also been contacted.
At the end of their letter, they stressed that the situation is still being monitored and analyzed. “At this time, we do not want to provide more information.”
A senior banking official from another financial institution told Index They are currently investigating the extent of the problem with great effort. They have also received many advertisements.
80,000 Hungarian forints were withdrawn in twenty minutes
Hundreds of complaints have been sent to our editorial email address, and we try to respond to them all. Our readers reported the following:
- Erste customers also reported the issue, and the financial institution responded that they had already received several signals from their customers;
- We had a reader who was charged 5,490 Hungarian forints by Apple on Wednesday evening.
- One of our readers pointed out that a total of four transactions were successful (about 12,000 HUF) and two were unsuccessful after he reduced the limit on his card. His bank advised him to temporarily block his card.
- One of our readers was charged 550,000 HUF in 74 transactions within 5 minutes, and his bank blocked his card.
Image: Readers' Image / Index
One of our readers put it this way:
Apple discount also started for me, as 80,000 HUF was debited from my card in 8 transactions within 20 minutes, before it was blocked. Of course, none of the billed transactions can be seen on the Apple Support page, Apple Support cannot be reached, and I was able to request a callback scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 2 PM. OTP also couldn't be reached by phone (everyone seemed to call them), and I gave up after an hour of waiting.
Several readers of MBH Bank and Revolut indicated that the problem also affects them, with one of them having a total of 22,000 Hungarian forints in three transactions, but customers who deal with Raiffeisen also reported the problem to our newspaper.
Writer Christian Nyari also reported the issue on our newspaper's Facebook page: “I've been debited for 22,000 via Unicredit, and I've now set the limit.”
“I am a Raiffeisen Bank customer, and Apple deducted a service subscription of HUF 12,990 that I stopped 2-3 months ago. In Raiffeisen customer service, they said the problem is huge,” said one of our readers.
Not everyone was successful
One of our readers wrote that fortunately the discount didn't work for him, but they contacted Apple, where they were able to speak to someone right away.
The customer service representative said that he does not see any deductions due to their failure, and there are no costs other than the usual subscriptions. We have to check with the bank. We also immediately reached out to Wise, where they also saw no transactions, they just put a hold on the card for security reasons. Naturally, the CIB could not be reached even after an hour of waiting
– said our reader.
(Cover image: S3studio/Getty Images)
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