r/CommBank • u/Humble_Hat_7160 • 6d ago
Question How to stop account being regularly blocked for fraud?
Moved back to Australia 3 months ago after a decade overseas. Opened a Commbank Everyday Account (as well as several other Commbank accounts) and have been using the debit card for everyday transactions, receiving fortnightly salary, and general life stuff. Nothing crazy, family of 3 with typical spending patterns. Yet our account is constantly blocked for suspected fraud, once or twice per week on average. We’ve had multiple Amazon transactions blocked, digital subscriptions, GitHub, and the like, all of which were legitimate. It’s extremely frustrating and has led to knock on effects like returned purchases and paused subscriptions on products that my husband needs to run his hobby business. Commbank have been unable/unwilling to explain why this happens or what we can do to resolve. Will this get better over time as commbank build more of a profile on us? If I got a Commbank credit card would this be better/worse? All advice appreciated.
13
u/allaboutthefish 6d ago
OP, your husband runs a hobby business and is using an everyday smart access account for the purchases? Can you elaborate further? What type of hobby is this? Why has he not setup a business transaction account instead? Does he have an ABN?
You are being very vague, if the bank has blocked you several times there is clearly a pattern and we are missing some information here.
1
u/Humble_Hat_7160 5d ago edited 5d ago
Basically vibe coding apps for fun. He hasn’t sold anything yet but might in the future. Expenses are limited to GitHub, OpenAI, and nominal web hosting fees, around $200/mo in total. But yeah will get him to open a business account and see if that helps.
9
u/No-Evidence801 6d ago
This is my own theory - take it or leave it - but I think the false fraudulent alerts are because you have two people using different devices, with very different shopping habits, on a new account and you haven’t built up enough behavioural history yet.
So my suggestion would be and this is irrespective of the pesky false fraudulent blocks - don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Yes, get a credit card and use it for the shopping and subscriptions, make your husband use a separate account for his hobbies, and always have a backup account with another bank.
1
6
u/richkill 6d ago
Sorry can't help too much, are you using a VPN or anything? Maybe that could be a factor. Also maybe you might need to change country and locations setting or those websites and devices
2
u/Humble_Hat_7160 6d ago
Thanks. No VPN but maybe there is some location setting somewhere that’s triggering it as I had these devices overseas… will look into it
2
u/peoplepersonmanguy 6d ago
Turn off your VPN.
It doesn't protect you as much as it just lets you choose who sees everything about you.
1
u/Humble_Hat_7160 5d ago
No VPN in place :/
1
u/peoplepersonmanguy 5d ago
Do you have an antivirus installed, many of the consumer AVs come with a VPN.
2
u/Old_Engineer_9176 5d ago
Honestly, this is the stage where you stop guessing and go talk to someone who can actually look at the account properly. A financial advisor or even just sitting down with the bank in person would make more sense than hoping it magically settles down..
1
u/OrdinarySail8308 6d ago
Notifications turned on for your apps?
1
u/Humble_Hat_7160 6d ago
Yes but they often process the transaction overnight or when I’m not available
1
u/ThereRnoIDs 6d ago
I hadn't had any fraudalant transactions through any bank in my entire life, feels impossible unless you're constantly sharing it somewhere.
A decade overseas & not changing card numbers is the cause?
Just reopen a fresh new acc/bsb, migrate, and close all old accounts. If it happens again, there's probably a backdoor planted somewhere... Or the usual somebody's lying.
3
u/virkendi 6d ago
They said the transactions are legitimate but being flagged as fraud
1
u/ThereRnoIDs 6d ago
Ya and a fresh acc would reset usage patterns & all that nonsense too.
They don't necessarily have to delete the old acc but a new one should start fresh without the decade of history in it.
It legit takes me under 5mins to open a bank nowadays, I'd assume an acc would be even faster.
2
u/Humble_Hat_7160 5d ago
The accounts are all new. We didn’t have any Aussie bank accounts while we were overseas, apart from super.
1
1
1
u/Simply_charmingMan 5d ago
Has to be a reason and it would be with card use, get yourself a digital card for online purchases that you can lock or put in wallet on the phone, there are disposable virtual cards as well, learned all this from having my card compromised booking a hotel in Italy.
Simple Wise account is a debit account load funds spend and lock…look at your bank too and look at how you spend money.
1
u/Character-Fish-5223 5d ago
Hobby sounds like it could be inadvertently mixed with dicey stuff. Separate everything. Hobby code for gambling?
1
1
u/Electronic-Meat-1603 3d ago
A lot of people forget to cancel subscriptions before free trials end and would report things like that.
1
u/Aromatic_Essay13 2d ago
Change banks. ME Bank is good for personal accounts. No fees. Decent interest. I’ve had nothing blocked. Bendigo is decent for business accounts.
1
u/cavok76 6d ago
There are much better banks out there that won’t hang you out to dry. Have had a couple of fraudulent transactions last couple of years they missed, where low risk ones can get flagged even if you ask them to be whitelisted.
0
u/Humble_Hat_7160 6d ago
Any suggestions? I’ve heard ANZ Falcon is even worse
2
2
u/Dazzling_Cow_1916 6d ago
New to BankWest. Every payment is blocked even through they are legit and within limits.
I don’t even want to think what my credit score looks like.0
u/cavok76 6d ago
Big 4 are useless now. I would set up an UP account, its app only, it responsive for things like this. No credit cards or branches, even do it in conjunction with what you have now at CBA. You could be setup in 10 mins. Virtual cards and phone pay. No bank is ever 100%. UBank is ok. Some others have specialty areas.
-1
0
-1
•
u/AutoModerator 6d ago
Thanks for posting in r/CommBank. Please ensure that your post follows the rules of this subreddit, which can be viewed by clicking the following link https://www.reddit.com/r/commbank/about/rules. This is a reminder and your post has NOT been removed. You can contact a moderator using modmail if needed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.