People throughout Iowa may have gotten an unwelcome surprise when they checked their bank account information on Tuesday.

They may have found that some automatic payments they were not planning on making Tuesday were made and the money was subtracted from their accounts.

That happened because of an electronic error, according to Patrick Dix, a spokesman for SHAZAM Inc., a debit network and processor based in Johnston. He said the error was expected to be fixed by this morning, with bank accounts restored to their previous amounts.

The error involved the Automated Clearing House or ACH, which Dix described as “another set of rails that helps transfer money.”

“This morning an ACH file was erroneously updated in a batch and it caused some transactions to happen that should not have happened,” he said Tuesday evening.

He said the staff of SHAZAM Inc., which is the ACH provider for Iowa, worked through the day to reverse all the payments that should not have been made. An electronic file posting that was set to occur at midnight was to be the final step toward fixing the error.

Dix said the situation was an electronic error, not a cyber crime.

He said anyone with questions or problems should contact their bank or credit union.

Dix said he didn’t know how many people were impacted by the electronic error.