Bupa has issued an apology and arranged refunds following a direct debit fault which resulted in approximately 50,000 of its customers being accidentally double-charged for their health insurance premiums.

“Due to a system error, on June 04 some members' credit cards were accidentally charged twice for their health insurance premium,” said Sally Damiani, director of customer experience. “We apologise for the mistake and for the inconvenience this has caused customers. This matter was taken very seriously. We are alerting affected customers, but most importantly, we have rectified the issue and all customers will have the amount refunded today.”