Tesco has apologised to its customers after a glitch left credit card payments taking up to three months to process.

Approximately 300 Tesco stores were affected by the glitch since November.

Some customers went beyond agreed overdraft limits because of the blunder.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: "As soon as we identified this issue, we contacted as many affected customers as possible and have now processed all incomplete transactions.

"The issue has now been resolved and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused."

A Tesco letter to customers affected said: "We are writing to let you know that a number of credit and debit card payments did not process correctly for some customers, in a small number of our Express stores.

"You may have noticed this as an unexpected transaction at Tesco in your bank statement."

MoneySavingExpert.com was the first to report the error after a number of its customers reported delayed transactions.

Tesco will refund bank charges incurred as a result of unexpected overdraft usage.

Steve Nowottny, news and features editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, said: "It's good to see Tesco has apologised to shoppers, but this is a real blunder. For a major supermarket to take payments up to three months late simply isn't acceptable.

"If you're operating on a tight budget it's crucial you know that payments will be processed more or less as you make them."