My wife and I have two bank accounts with the CBA. One linked to Cheque, one linked to Savings.

The other night, we went to woolworths and bought some s*** that was just over $50. We were supposed to pay via eftpos on our Cheque account, however we accidently used Savings instead. The transaction went through OK though.

Just looking at the statement now, it looks like we only had $6 in the account at the time of using the Eftpos though, which means that the bank allowed us to overdraw by over $44, and then of course they charged us the $30 fee on top of that. We had plenty of cash in the other account, we just pressed the wrong button.

My question is - can they do this? I can understand why they would allow you to overdraw by $1 or $2, but to allow you to overdraw by $44, and then charge you for it? Is that s*** even f***ing legal? It seems absurd.

I just want to know where I stand before I call them asking to refund the $30 fee.

Cheers

Yeah they can do this, the wifey works for a bank and I can over draw our accounts up to $100 and have in the past done exactly the same thing, although she usually fixes it up before the fee kicks in.

Depends on your accound and which Boxes you Ticked when you made said Account.

My would come up 'Transaction Declined'

I don't have an overdraft facility and I prefer it that way. The only way that I can be overdrawn is if its a direct debit.

short answer = yup, they can
You could however make an issue of it with their customer support an have it waived if your persistent enough - really important tho, be passively firm yet always polite. You want them to help you, not hinder you.

I don't have an overdraft facility and I prefer it that way. The only way that I can be overdrawn is if its a direct debit.

That's what I was positive that I had on this account. No way would I ever want to be able to be overdrafted, that's retarded.

Ring them up, and tell them and ask to get the charge refunded.

With the ANZ, both times this happened due to similar circumstances it was put back...But warned me the next time its sticking :(

Ring them up, and tell them and ask to get the charge refunded.

With the ANZ, both times this happened due to similar circumstances it was put back...

Yeah I stormed into ANZ one day pissed off that they let me overdraw from an ANZ ATM of all places and charge me, when it used be declined in the past. Refunded and had the feature turned off.

Apparently they are allowed to charge you a fee but only enough to cover the cost of the admin for the overdraft, which of course is far less then the $30 fee or whatever they will try to charge you. So as previously said, challenge the massive fee, but with the knowledge that they aren't actually allowed to force you to pay all of it.

haha... i shouldnt laugh but this happens all the time here. when i first got here i was just putting it on the card, assuming it would decline.

no.. go into overdraft, get a £30 fine. c***s.

now, heres the kicker.

so i was going to the atm, checking my balance. says ive got say £10 left. so i go spend £5. mean while an "eftpos" transaction hasnt cleared yet. im like wtf. then boof, that sale goes through, puts you into overdraft and another £30 fine.

What danthepirate said - they are only allowed to charge a fee to cover the cost of administration so you can argue that a $30 fee for an overdraft is ridiculous since it's mostly automated these days. Don't go calling them in a rage though, you inevitably end up getting what you want by being nice to people.

Next time, choose the right bank account and hopefully by then you have told CBA to f off!

CBA can offer refunds...it will depend on who you speak to and how helpful they want to be though, and also if they're aware they can do it.

Yeah they can do this. AFAIK, there is a certain limit as to how much you can overdraw before you get the Transaction Declined. I don't know if they'll tell you this (the overdraw limit) though.

Was watching something on Today Tonight some time back about this and what they said to do was to threaten that you would go to the ombudsman and they would usually re-imburse your fee. The ombudsmen is in favour of the consumer instead of the banks as they can't justify a bank charging an overdrawn fee that's sometimes 300% more than the actual overdrawn amount ... bottom line are banks are f*ckers!!!!

Back in the day it was Al Capone and his sort, now it's banks.

Do you have written proof of the account type and features you signed up to, ie the Contract?

Banks are extremely quick to fix up any errors that you can prove was done by their end. Otherwise you will have to be persistent and hope that
customer satisfaction will get you through. Also, insist that if they don't fix it you will go to another Bank, if they don't fix it it, go to the other Bank.

do you honestly think that the person dealing with someone who made a mistake and is blaiming the bank and demanding that the bank do soemthing about it really cares if such customer goes to a different bank?

it probably costs them more to refund your $30 than what ever money you would make them.