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CommBank 50 dollar sorry refunds July 2020
Commonwealth Bank hands out $50 "sorry" deposits. Image source: bmphotographer, Shutterstock.

Commonwealth Bank customers might notice a free $50 has been deposited into their accounts today as a “goodwill payment” for last week’s network outage.

The major bank sent an email out this afternoon to customers who’d been “significantly impacted” by a payment processing issue on 6 July, saying it was “truly sorry” for the inconvenience this caused and that they would receive a $50 goodwill payment.

The payment should have arrived in customer accounts this morning, according to the bank.

“We hope this gesture will go some way towards showing you our sincere apology,” Commonwealth Bank (CBA) said in an email to customers.

A spokesperson from the bank told Canstar its customers would not need to provide their account details in order to process the $50 payment and if customers were approached for those details they should not provide them.

The spokesperson also advised that impacted customers would be refunded any fees or charges applied to their accounts as a result of the payment processing issue.

The bank’s outage last Monday saw customers unable to view accounts or loan statements or make transfers and payments online, which left some cardholders penniless at the petrol bowser, and shortchanged for timely expenses such as medication and groceries.

Though normal services became available again late at night on 6 July, customers were still seeing inaccuracies later in the week, such as card purchases showing up as an “approved transaction” but also as a “pending transaction” and some credit card transactions not displaying merchant descriptions correctly online or via the CommBank app.

As of Saturday, 11 July, the bank said it had successfully removed all inconsistencies from customers’ accounts relating to how credit and debit card transactions were appearing.

This isn’t the first time in recent history that Commonwealth Bank has deposited $50 into customer accounts, having taken a similar approach in October last year after a major network outage.

The bank also had to refund fees and charges associated with last year’s 12-hour outage.

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Ellie McLachlan is the former Content Lead at Canstar, helping to shape and deliver the content strategy. She specialises in covering mortgage and everday money topics and breaking finance news. An experienced journalist, Ellie has made her mark working in digital, broadcast and print media, serving in positions such as Editor at News Corp Australia's Compare Money and also News.com.au's Best Of Money, as Story Strategy Coach at the Australian Conservation Foundation, as a lifestyle reporter at The Urban List, The Courier Mail and The Sunshine Coast Daily, as well as radio presenter at 4ZZZ. While at Canstar, Ellie has written well over 500 finance articles and her work is regularly referenced by other publishers, including Business Insider, The Motley Fool and The New Daily. Her expert financial commentary has been featured in publications such as Yahoo Finance and the Herald Sun. Ellie studied a Bachelor of Journalism and Arts (Peace and Conflict Studies) at the University of Queensland.

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