Commonwealth Bank at a loss, customers furious at Travel Money card outage

COMMONWEALTH Bank cards have suffered a major outage, leaving thousands of people stranded and unable to access their money.

Out of Service Commonwealth Bank ATMs at the Church St, Parramatta branch following a major computer glitch. Pic: Jeff Herbe...

COMMONWEALTH Bank says it is at a loss to explain what caused a major outage of its Travel Money cards which left thousands of travellers stranded with no access to cash overnight.

From around midnight AEST, angry customers flooded social media with complaints at being unable to access their funds and having transactions declined.

Australian journalist Vivienne Kelly, travelling in Europe, said when she logged onto her NetBank app it said she had no money on her Travel Money card, despite having loaded it with euros, Australian dollars and British pounds.

Logging onto the full website, she was given an error message saying it was unable to display her funds and to try again later.

“I’m facing the prospect of arriving in Barcelona alone and unable to pay for any transport from the airport,” she wrote in an email from London’s Gatwick Airport. “I’m also supposed to pay my accommodation balance on arrival.”

She said CommBank had advised her via social media to call them to get a cash advance, but without access to cash she couldn't purchase Skype credit or a phone card.

“To say I’m less than excited about the prospect of arriving in Barcelona after midnight, alone and without access to cash, would be an understatement,” she wrote.

“They assured me the Travel Money cards were the safest and most reliable way to access my own money overseas and said there was no need to incorporate any alternatives into my plans.”

Ms Kelly said her account details showed she had been charged multiple times for transactions which were actually declined. “I ended up having to pay cash for some of these in the end so I’m very out of pocket,” she said.

Others took to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration. “Cannot access my Travel Card via any means in the USA,” wrote Twitter user Callum Noonan. “Need my money. App, website and ATM all say I have no currencies.”

Commonwealth Bank says the issue with its Travel Money cards has been resolved.

User Turky Alrasheed wrote: “What’s wrong with [Travel Card]? It does not work. Good that I have some spare cash otherwise I will sleep in the street.”

On the bank’s Facebook page, Nick Lyons wrote: “All the multiple transactions I tried to make today (some more than once) on Travel Money card that were declined, which we ended up paying in what cash we had left, are shown in NetBank charged as ‘pending’.

“Which basically means that all this money is no longer available to us despite being declined and paid in cash! This means we have next to no money left for our holiday!

“Contacted CommBank and they stated it could take up to 10 days for the funds to be reversed! In the meantime we have no money! Another extremely poor service from Commonwealth Bank to a loyal and long-time customer.”

Holly Reynolds vowed to never use a CommBank travel card again. “[To] go overseas you are the worst bank to be with,” she wrote. “The last two days I have not been able to transfer money onto my travel card because it won’t show in my NetBank.

“[I] have had to use my normal card that costs a lot to use overseas. I am very disappointed and will never use a travel card with you guys again. Very inconvenient when I am overseas and needing money ... Very upsetting and frustrating.”

It’s the second time CommBank’s systems have suffered a major outage in recent months, after online banking services and Eftpos terminals went offline for several hours in June, causing chaos for shoppers and businesses.

@CallumNoonan: @CommBank cannot access my travel card via any means in USA. need my money. App website and ATM all say i have no currencies.

— Callum Noonan (@CallumNoonan) August 2, 2015

@CommBank Overseas in the uk and my travel money card has stopped working. Netbank app says i have no currency. Cant access my money

— Isaac (@isaaacmadden) August 2, 2015

@CommBank whats wrong with traveling card it does not work .. good that i have some spare cash otherwise i will sleep in the street.

— Turky Alrasheed (@TurkiAlrasheed) August 2, 2015

Hey @commbank, if I have to use another card will you reimburse all the fees???? This travel card situation is ridiculous.

— Natalie Nguyen (@imnatalienguyen) August 2, 2015

@CommBank still not working guys, you've completely left me stranded !!!

— Tania Debono (@the_cakeface) August 2, 2015

A CommBank spokesman told news.com.au the issue with its Travel Money cards had been resolved since around 6am AEST, but was unable to offer an explanation. He could not say how many customers had been affected. “We don’t know [what caused it],” he said.

“What we did do was try to fix it up as soon as possible. There was a technical issue they worked to fix, but the cause of that we're not entirely sure. It took a couple of hours but we were able to have it all fixed up and back to normal.”

The spokesman said it was most likely unrelated to the issue which brought down CommBank’s systems several weeks ago. “I would say no,” he said. “I would pretty much say it’s not related.”

He added: “Commonwealth Bank apologies to our customers who were inconvenienced by this and we thank them for their patience.”

Vivienne Kelly told news.com.au her card had been declined again at her accommodation this morning even though she could see euros in the account when looking at the app.

“Glad that CBA thinks they’ve fixed the problem for other people though,” she said.

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