dodgy transactions charged to commonwealth bank debit card

Hi members,

I own a Commonwealth bank debit card, but have not been using it for the past one-and-a-half year since I am based overseas. Card is with me all along.

Recently, I have found several dodgy transactions charged to my card. One was from amazon.de, two more from unfamiliar sources.

I immediately cancelled my debit card.

Then I had tried to dispute these transactions, and had been ringing up the commonwealth phone line for umpteenth times. However, I had been put on hold for almost an hour -- every time I called! There was no email which I could write.

Does any member here own a Commonwealth credit/debit card, and have encountered or known of dodgy transactions charged to your account ? Any idea of an email which I could write to ?

 

I had no problems getting through the couple of times this happened to me. Are you calling the number on the back of the card?

 

I rang the number for calls from overseas -- 61 2 9999 3283. And I tried the number 61 132221.

For the past two weeks, my wife and I tried calling everyday but we were always put on hold for a long time.

 

If you ring the 132221 number about 9pm Sydney time it should be OK then.

Contact us - CommBank

 

Thanks @qak !

 

I've found the banks to be pretty good at picking up on this and actually contacting me first and arranging a refund more or less straight away.
My experience is admittedly with Bankwest however (owned by CBA)

 

I was frequently told by the answering machine that the customer service officers "are busy" and that I might have to wait for "one hour"..... which I did. For the past two weeks, my calls were never picked up by a human. Maybe I'd try again at 9pm Sydney time.

 

Or from 6am Sydney time - early or late is the key.

 

Is the number one where you are asked to say what your call is about?

Once I said “fraud” I went straight through to a person (ANZ bank).

 

Banking ombudsman. No mucking around.

 

Never have had a problem with CBA. A few times we were actually contacted by CBA asking, if a few weird transactions were indeed ours. Once we were overseas and it is was fine, but in the other time indeed, some had stolen our credit card details here in Australia and was using the card details in U.S. CBA was really active in the matter and we did not even see those fraudulent transactions on our credit card statement. Received the new cards and we did not do anything with the matter.

 

True. But what if you can't get through to the thick head bank as in this case. The ombudsman will give the customer a special number to ring.

 

My son had to ring yesterday and it took him 45 minutes from about 8pm to get through. Not sure why it is so busy.

The lost/stolen card line is actually supposed to be 24 hours, so in theory you should be able to call anytime.

 

We rang up at 9pm Sydney time last night, and tried again at 6am this morning. Gave up after more than half hour on hold .... because these calls are chalking up my overseas calls' bills ... and the supposed "overseas calls reverse charges" are non-existent.

It would have been so much easier if I were back in Oz. I could simply walk into any branch to highlight the issue and get things looked into on the spot.

I reckon the immediate solution is to cancel all my Oz banks' credit cards till the travel bubble is up and I'm able to travel back and forth as usual. Dealing with issues from afar is no joke.

 

Perhaps you could contact Visa/MasterCard if they are on the card?

Or on the CBA site, you can lodge an online complaint

Contact Us - Your Feedback - CommBank

If you have the App, there may be a different method of contact.

Good luck.

 

Thanks Millie. This is exactly what I need -- to lodge a complaint about their inefficiency at handling fraudulent charges when clients are overseas.
The moment the transactions were still "pending" , I had made numerous calls trying to alert the bank , and hoping that they could investigate and stop payment to these fraudulent merchants. Too late. They went ahead and paid. Now I'd have to go through the long process of "dispute transactions".

 

On the app they have "chat with CEBA", the robot, which ultimately directed me to call the numbers to "speak to human". Probably because of pandemic and working from home, the calls are often put through the answering machines and on perpetual hold.
My mother went to the branch to speak to the customer service but was told that the client himself has to call up or be present at bank.
I have just emailed the bank to lodge a complaint. Will have to wait for them to respond, and if they do, I'd raise the issue of "dispute transactions".

 

Report suspicious transactions through the app via chatting with the bot. Will be sorted in minutes.