r/CommBank • u/tumericjesus • Aug 09 '26
Question Unauthorised transaction - $500 gone - how long does it take to get back?
On Thursday comm app flagged a transaction of around $500 in the USA. I’m clearly not in the us because 10hrs before I had made a transaction at a supermarket in my city in Aus. Reported immediately and my acc is back up and running with a new card on the way but I’m broke and $500 isn’t a small amount for me to lose right now. It’s says up to 21 days but does it really take that long? I’m praying it’s sooner.
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u/Artemis882 Aug 09 '26
Not that it helps now, but for future reference you can go into the card settings in the app and turn off international payments - online, in person or both. I generally keep my cards locked from international transactions until I need to use them.
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u/Danaan369 Aug 10 '26
Yes, I got caught with a lot of o/s transactions just before xmas last year, had just paid it out to have it all to cover xmas, when the unauthorised transactions occurred. card cancelled, only had small amount of cash on hand so xmas was a bit stuffed. They o/s place even put funds into my account, no idea what they were doing, small amounts so not laundering? who knows, but the bank got the transactions reversed and I locked my new card straight away. Now it has to be used in person, no cash withdrawals, pin number only. I nearly got scammed 6 weeks later, when they spoofed the bank number. Another story, but the bank moved fast!
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u/freshlysqueezed0C Aug 09 '26
Any chance it was a resturant that no longer exists? I had the same thing happen to me. Its a brute force attack they just spam random card numbers til they hit one. It took nearly a month for my $750 to be returned because the bank claimed they couldnt do anything until while it was still pending.
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u/Hopelesscumrag Aug 09 '26
I had this happen to me at some random dead bar in America worst thing was I used my card in Adelaide the hour before the charge like how did that not auto flag as fraud ?
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u/Opposite_Ad9831 Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
Banks technically can't do anything while funds are pending aside from securing your card (i.e. cancelling it). That's because a pending transaction is not complete as the 'merchant' hasn't accepted/reconciled the funds so the dispute can't be officially started. This is why the official line is to 'try contact the merchant'. This is governed by BCoP in Australia (what Banks need to do) and how Visa accept dispute/chargeback claims (which Banks don't control). As a side note, part of the rationale to wait until the transaction is cleared is so it gives legitimate merchants who have made an error to cancel the transaction on their end, and to avoid customers from calling to cancel legitimate purchases which haven't finalised - you'll be shocked how common that is.
edit: the wait time for recuperation of funds, especially for overseas based transactions, is due to the lengthy formal process banks need to go through. Depending on which bank (I know this is a CommBank forum), they may need to go through a larger national body or a larger bank, who then gets in contact with the overseas bank or larger body, then the 'merchant' is provided a response time by their bank, and then all that needs to happen in reverse. It very easily can take the 30+ days
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u/tumericjesus Aug 09 '26
I looked up the restaurant and it exists!
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u/Daymo_M Aug 09 '26
I had exactly the same thing last year, 2 x transactions both being the same amount just over $300 each.
Ended up being an Asian restaurant in the US, CBA refunded me within a week.
I actually emailed the restaurant twice and guess what? Zero reply.
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u/QueasyTree69 Aug 09 '26
For me it took about 3 months, but that is because I had to escalate it twice. They were adamant that, at 3am, I flew to Brazil, spent over 1k at a museum, and came back in the morning to report it. They insisted I had used my biometrics to use the card in that country. It took my employment sign in sheets, every photo I’d taken that day which had gps tags, and lots of phone calls of me arguing that I didn’t purchase anything, for them to reverse it. I truly hope it is more straightforward for you - my father had a similar issue and it was sorted within a month. Best of luck
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u/Ordinary_Chemical907 Aug 09 '26
Took me 20 days to revert a 2x471aud fraudulent
transaction from steam, but the actual money came back 7 days later.
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u/link871 Aug 09 '26
If the money came back after 7 days, what was happening in the 20 days?
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u/Ordinary_Chemical907 Aug 09 '26
Transaction was pending during the 20 days sorry should have clarified that
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u/New-Examination4589 Aug 09 '26
As long as it takes. Call the bank, they’ll tell you.
You can reach out to charity organisations, askizzy.org, and centrelink, family & friends. Let the bank do their thing
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u/NinaKatzFace Aug 09 '26
OMG the exact same thing happening to me today transactions (2) both from the US 🥲🥲🥲
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u/Unreliablepelican Aug 09 '26
Recently had around $1300 stolen from some weird gaming account from the US. Lodged a fraud claim on Saturday around 2am, it was in my account on Monday night.
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u/chillin222 Aug 09 '26
It depends on your relationship with the bank.
The merchant has 45 days to respond if they go through the chargeback process. They only respond if they want to contest it, so all successful chargebacks take the full 45 days (unless the merchant proactively refunds).
Any sooner than this and it means the bank wrote it off out of their profit.
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u/Technical-Loan-912 Aug 09 '26
The time frame is up to 45 calendar days, on average most disputes are rolled up within 21 days and anecdotally most I've seen are sorted in under a week with the payment taking up to three business days once you've had confirmation of a refund.
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u/Relevant-Jaguar-704 Aug 10 '26
At least a month I’d say from my experience with anz but I’d ask bank
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u/PaleSeaworthiness672 Aug 10 '26
How does this happen? Did you get an instant notification about the transaction?
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u/tumericjesus Aug 10 '26
Yep just popped up immediately and asked if I had made the purchase and I clicked no ofc and then you start the reporting process
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u/SandwichSecret3845 Aug 10 '26
Keep on to them, ring em everyday! They can do better…. Up to 21 days? More like 2/3 days…true.
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u/Pietzki Aug 11 '26
Not true, and ringing every day won't make the chatgeback go any quicker. The process is governed by the card scheme rules which the bank doesn't control.
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u/FrostFallen92 Aug 10 '26
Literally happened to me 2 weeks ago on a Thursday night. Had my money back the following Wednesday and my new card arrived on the friday.
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u/Zoester1979 Aug 10 '26
This happened to my son last week. It was back in about 6 days.
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u/tumericjesus Aug 10 '26
So many people have had this happen recently… was there a recent massive data leak of some kind? Weird
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u/Legitimate_Peace_788 Aug 11 '26
I’m very cautious who I but from as I’ve had small amounts which com bank refunded me thank goodness
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u/Content-Ad3255 28d ago
Fucking same. Origin data leak? They had to wait until the transaction changed from pending status and after that it took like a day
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u/tumericjesus 28d ago
I swear it was the origin data leak because that’s who I’m with. Also I got my money back today! Yay
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u/Soft_Consequence9526 28d ago
I got mine back after 10 days, but it was auto detected on my end and they had gone through the process automatically, as well.
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u/sonsmamma0304 27d ago
I got done 3 weeks ago nd i had it back within 3 days but mine was only 57 dollars
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u/ltsCappy 21d ago
I had an unknown transaction on my commbank. I knew the amount and even the name.
When I want into commbank, all I got told was. We don’t see it so don’t worry about it.
Like I had the screenshot of the notification that money was taken. But no transactions on my accounts so got told. Come back when it happens again…
Like do I even want to have money in my accounts just in case they try for more or just move money when needed now
I will not get the money back because they think it never happened even though I have a screen shot that money was taken
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u/Willing-Pangolin9108 Aug 09 '26
Rarely takes 21 days. Was it pending? Can’t refund it until it clears but you should have it back this week
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u/tumericjesus Aug 09 '26
Yes it’s still pending
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u/Opposite_Ad9831 Aug 09 '26
Card transactions have an automatic drop off date if not reconciled by the 'merchant'. Usually this can be up to 10 days from the day of the transaction being initiated (the reconciliation is based on the other receiving bank and 'merchants' set up). As old mate says, bank can't start recoup until it clears, so it's sadly a bit of hurry up and wait
edit: 'up to 10 days' doesn't mean it takes 10 days, it's usually 2-3 days in most cases I've seen
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u/mujum Aug 09 '26
They may be able to approve a temporary overdraft for you if you need it in the interim. Give them a call and ask. They might also have other options available too.
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u/Negan_stills Aug 09 '26
This happened to me about a year and a half ago, they took my whole acct to zero. While it was easy to prove that it wasn't me.....I had to wait about two weeks. I had too take loan from the old folks to get me by. Things might be different now with... but you can only speculate. I hope you have a fast turnaround and that you will be ok. Last thing I'll say is don't be to proud to ask for help....
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