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.
I have been a Commonwealth Bank customer for a while now, and recently I walked into the La Trobe branch to ask them a few questions about one of their financial products. For privacy reasons, I cannot mention the type of financial service I enquired about. I did sign up to it though on the spot though.
The thing is, I did my sums before approaching the bank staff. Their website is quite informative, and if there is ever a time to read fine print - it’s when you sign up to financial products.
One way to test whether the person whom you are liaising with knows their stuff is to question them on the fine print. When I sign up to any product, I go straight to the fine print - the Conditions Apply, or Important Information section. If I am not sure, then I go to the business and ask the staff there what it means. Basically, if they do not know - or need to ask their boss, you know where they stand with their product.
Putting this principle into practice today, the bank staff was able to have a quick read of the fine print and explain to me clearly what it meant. Now, I also read it before I went there, and what she told me was exactly how I interpreted it.
Two things came out of this: 1) My interpretation was correct, 2) The bank’s interpretation was correct. Therefore if things do go wrong on that fine print, I have a leg to stand on. Many times I note people do not read things before signing up to contracts etc, and this is a huge risk especially in today’s volatile financial markets. You could lose a lot of money. So read everything, and it WILL take you a while - but better to do so, than to lose hard earned money on a whim.
I have been a 
