I am a regular user of Commonwealth Bank’s NetBank. Although it doesn’t look as pretty as Westpac’s interface, its very fast and efficient. I rarely go into a bank these days, until the other day when I went in to the branch at Brandon Park to ask about my credit card available funds.

I have a credit card which has no awards points, and no interest free period. I have purposely signed up for such a card because there are no yearly fees, and it forces me to pay it off regularly. In fact I rarely have any funds due on my credit card at any time, as I use it and pay it off instantly.

Such was the case on Monday 14th (see pic) when I used it to make a purchase worth $550, and paid it off within minutes using Netbank. Usually, the available funds updates instantly and this time it didn’t. I gave it 24 hours, and it still had not. I rang up Commbank, and they said it can take a few days. Still no signs of updating. You see I pay interest on any remaining sums on my credit card, so I was important it updated quickly rather than in “few days” or even “weeks”. Anyhow, I went to the Brandon Park branch, and apparently I had been double charged on my credit card. This is a rare error, because 1) I received an invoice for the amount, 2) the online statement only shows 1 charge being made, 3) Commbank records (in their database) only shows 1 charge being made. Where did the other charge come from? I don’t know, and Commbank were not able to explain it either.

I had my CC reversed back to its full limit instantly after the error was found. This is so weird. Never have I had a problem with Netbank, and hopefully its a once off. So if your statement online doesn’t update instantly, question it quickly - to ensure everything no errors have occurred.