Washington Mutual Cards Affected by Glitch

A software glitch caused problems for up to 30,000 Washington Mutual Inc. customers who tried to use debit cards for purchases, had the transactions rejected and then, in some cases, were charged anyway, the savings and loan said.

The troubles occurred mainly in California and Eastern states Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time, when technicians replaced a corrupted file, said Timothy McGarry, a spokesman for the Seattle-based company.

The bank hoped to correct the improper debits by Monday night, a process it said could be completed without notification from customers.

-- E. Scott Reckard