clients have been experiencing problems while using their cards to do Christmas shopping on the Island.

The Royal Gazette has learned that hundreds of residents using bank cards have been experiencing long delays -- often having their credit declined despite money in their accounts.

Danny Fox, Bank of Bermuda senior vice president of retail clients, admitted the problem and apologised, but he explained that the large amount of transactions "have created stresses in the system''. Mr. Fox noted that the bank would "continue to monitor the systems very closely'' and explained why the delays had come about.

"In some cases, '' he said, "this could be due to the fact that the customers may have exceeded their daily limit of 14 transactions for EasyLink cardholders, their daily limit of $1000, which has been recommended by the credit card associations as a fraud prevention measure in case the card becomes lost or stolen.'' "On occasion, a customer could be over their card limit,'' he added.