Making the most of your products

Advise us immediately if your card, cheque book or passbook is lost or stolen, or you think someone else knows your PIN, password or has used your account. Otherwise, you may be responsible for any financial losses.

• Sign the back of your card as soon as you get it
• Memorise your PIN or password, then destroy or delete it
• Destroy old or unused cards
• Regularly change your PIN
  

When money is deposited into your account, you may have to wait for it to become available. For example, we may place a hold on funds when:

• Someone puts money in your account
• You deposit a cheque
• You make a deposit at a post office where the transaction cannot be processed electronically

At times, your account may fall below zero. For example:

• Where we decide to honour a direct debit, a PayTo payment, a scheduled BPAY payment, a purchase using a card linked to your account or a cheque
• When a pending direct debit or cheque transaction that we ultimately decline has caused the available funds in your account to fall below zero, and we honour another direct debit or cheque that was made the same day as the declined transaction
• When a card purchase doesn’t require or seek our authorisation, systems are unavailable or a merchant settles a transaction late

If this happens, you must pay back the overdrawn amount immediately, and you may be charged an overdraw fee and interest (if applicable to your account).

You can switch off the overdraw feature any time in NetBank and the CommBank app in your account settings. 

For some accounts we charge an assisted withdrawal fee of $3 when you take money out:

• At a CommBank branch, post office or agency
• With telephone banking if using an operator
• By cashing a cheque

Depending on your account type, we pay interest and bonus interest on the daily positive closing balance.

If you have a GoalSaver account, you can earn bonus interest if you:

• Make a deposit each calendar month into your account, and
• Have a higher account balance at the end of the month compared to the account balance at the start of the month (excluding interest and bank-initiated transactions)

Avoiding credit card interest is easy when you know how. Simply pay the total amount owing (closing balance) – not the minimum repayment amount – by the payment due date each month.

If you miss a monthly payment, you’ll be charged a fee. Plus, you’ll be charged interest on all purchases you make in that statement period, as well as any outstanding purchases from previous periods.

To keep up with your payments, you can set up AutoPay in the CommBank app or NetBank to make an automatic payment to your credit card each month.

Keep within your credit card limit to ensure that your purchases are not declined. And if your account was opened after 1 July 2012 you’ll steer clear of overlimit fees.

You can even put a spending cap on your card to help you stay in control of your spending. It’s easy to set up through the CommBank app or NetBank – and you can remove the cap at any time. 

Some transactions – like cash withdrawals and gambling transactions – have extra charges associated with them. A cash advance fee and a higher interest rate will apply. What’s more, these types of transactions don’t have an interest-free period. To avoid any surprises, it’s a good idea to find out which types of transactions come with extra charges. 

Avoiding fees by blocking ATM cash advances on your card is easy to do with the CommBank app or NetBank.

Your credit card makes international transactions a breeze, whether you’re shopping online or heading overseas on holidays. But it’s important to remember that these transactions can also attract extra fees. For instance, you may be charged an international transaction fee to convert a foreign currency to Australian dollars – and you may not even realise until you see your statement.

One way to reduce these fees is to set up a lock on overseas transactions. It’s easy to do via the CommBank app or NetBank – and you can turn it off whenever you like.

You can choose a direct debit repayment frequency that suits your financial situation – for example, if your income is paid weekly or fortnightly.

Making your repayments more frequently and setting a higher regular direct debit amount helps reduce your interest charges so you can pay off your loan faster. 

To set up direct debit, simply visit your local branch.

If your repayment is overdue by five or more business days, you’ll be charged a $20 late payment fee. You can avoid this fee by keeping track of your repayment due date via CommBank app or NetBank.

If you set up a direct debit, your loan repayments will come out of your account automatically. That way, the only thing you need to do is make sure there’s enough money in your account to cover each repayment.

To set up direct debit, simply visit your local branch.

You can reduce the life of your loan by paying more than the minimum repayment amount. Every bit extra you put into you loan helps to reduce the balance and the amount of interest you need to pay.

But with certain loans, you may incur additional costs if you repay more than your annual limit or pay off your loan early.

If you have a Variable Rate Loan, any additional repayments you make will reduce the balance of your loan faster. What’s more, you can redraw money from your available balance if you need to access some additional funds.

There’s a $10 fee if you redraw in branch, but there’s no fee if you use the CommBank app or NetBank.

While it’s good to pay off your loan as soon as possible, you need to be mindful if you have a Fixed Rate Loan or a Secured Personal Loan.

If you have one of these loans, you may be charged an Early Repayment Adjustment (ERA) if you:

• repay your loan in full before the end of the loan term
• make extra repayments (above your minimum repayment) of more than $1000 per year.

The ERA is calculated based on current interest rates, the size of your loan and the amount you’ve repaid above the minimum repayment amount.