Commonwealth Bank customers have been left standing at the checkout bewildered and embarrassed when card payments are declined.
“We apologise to customers who had transactions duplicated in their accounts today. The process to reverse these is underway and customers are now seeing the duplicate transactions disappear.
“This process should be completed over the coming hours,” the Commonwealth Bank said in a statement at 3:49pm.
Transactions from the last few days have been charged again to some customer’s accounts, leaving some people broke.
“I was stunned to see I was overdrawn. I did my shopping online Thursday and the money came out then.
“Today they have charged me for it again and as they charge $15 for being overdrawn, I’m expecting them to try take that out as well, it’s also meant that my daughter cannot get shopping for her kids, thanks for nothing Commbank,” Kerry Ann Willcocks, a customer, said.
Some people, in a cost-of-living crisis, who live week-to-week have been left unable to pay for groceries or activities such as weekend children’s sports.
VicNews is aware of one man who – thinking he still had money in his account – filled his car with petrol. When he went to pay for the fuel the transaction was declined. Police were called for failure to pay.
“We are aware some customers are seeing duplicate transactions from payments. We are working to reverse these transactions as a matter of urgency and any fees charged will be refunded.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for being patient with us,” a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson told VicNews.
This afternoon the Commonwealth Bank provided a further statement:
“We are aware some customers are seeing duplicate transactions on their accounts.
“We are urgently reversing these transactions and any fees charged will be refunded. This may take some time and customers do not need to contact us to request this.
“We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and thank customers for their patience.
“Other banking services including the CommBank app, NetBank, credit and debit cards, ATM’s, CommBiz and merchant terminals remain fully available.
“If anyone is finding themselves in financial difficulty, support such as a temporary overdraft may be available via calling us on 13 2221 or visiting us in a branch. Our Saturday branch weekend hours can also be found on our website.
“We will continue to provide updates at www.commbank.com.au/updates.
“We encourage customers to be aware of increased scam activity. Remember, we’ll never send you an email or SMS asking for banking information like your NetBank Client ID, password, or NetCode; or include a link to login directly from an email or SMS,” a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said.
This article was amended at 2:50 pm and 4:07 pm AEST with additional statements from the Commonwealth Bank.
