Recently we have seen an increase in issues regarding duplicate payments and have identified a common source leading to the problem.
If your loan is set up for automatic auto-drafts from a deposit account to satisfy the monthly due payment this process will start three business days before the payment is due, if the payment is still showing as due. This means if the payment is due on a Monday the payment will start pulling from the designated account as early as the prior Wednesday as a result of processing timeframes. The payment will then automatically post to your loan on the due date, and the monthly payment will still show as due until the auto-draft has fully processed and posted.
Once the processing of the auto-draft has begun three business days before hand it will continue until completion and post to your loan. This means that even if you make a manual monthly payment between the three business days and the due date, the auto-draft will still post leading to a duplicate payment.
As a best practice, if you want to make a manual payment to satisfy your monthly due amount, please do so prior to three business days before the payment due date. Otherwise please let the auto-draft payment process as normal.
If you have experienced a duplicate payment issue please send us a message and we will work to have the funds returned to you as soon as possible.
You may also contact your local Fulton Bank branch or the Direct Banking Center at 1.800.385.8664, and a representative will be happy to assist you with this issue. A complete list of our hours and locations is available on our website here.