Update after major Commonwealth Bank glitch saw customers charged double

CommBank customers woke on Saturday to find funds had been taken from their accounts for transactions they had already paid for.

Commonwealth Bank customers have been repaid after they woke to find they had been charged twice for transactions made during the week, pushing some accounts into negative territory.

Many CommBank users took to social media on Saturday after saying they had been unable to get through to customer service to raise complaints.

Some reported having hundreds of dollars taken from their accounts for transactions they had previously paid for days ago.

“Once I get my money back I’m switching to a different bank. This is beyond just a simple apology,” one person wrote on X.

There were also stories of Aussies not being able to pay for essentials like medications due to their accounts being in the negative.

Another CommBank customer posted a screenshot of their account balance, showing it had fallen to -$2815.05.

CommBank said on Saturday morning it was aware of the issue and was working to reverse the transactions “as a matter of urgency”.

CommBank customers reported being charged twice.

A spokesperson later said the issue had been “resolved” by about 5pm in the afternoon.

“We have resolved an earlier issue where some customers experienced duplicate transactions in their accounts,” the bank’s spokesperson said.

“The process to reverse these transactions has been completed.

“Please be assured any fees charged will be refunded. Customers do not need to contact us to request this.

“If anyone is finding themselves in financial difficulty, we encourage them to please contact us on 13 2221.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for being patient with us.”

Several people had reported their accounts being overdrawn by the unexpected deductions.

“Why is my account needlessly overdrawn? You have charged me some of my previous transactions twice? What is going on?” one wrote.

A woman said the bank had “just taken all the payments I’ve made this week out my account again”.

Another said: “I woke up with the same, $800 transaction from 3 days ago and I’m pissed.”

The Ceba chat bot on the CommBank app.

It was not working when news.com.au attempted to use it.

The Ceba chat bot on the CommBank app also appeared to be experiencing difficulties, with messages failing to send.

People raged about the issue, fearing it could impact their buying of essential items like groceries and petrol.

“My account is overdrawn! I have bills to pay and children I need to feed! How does this happen!” one said.

Another said it was “shocking” but may have been out of the bank’s control.

“Lots of people are living paycheck to paycheck and having this happen could seriously affect their weekend as the refunds won’t happen for multiple days,” they said.

In one of hundreds of comments on the bank’s Facebook post about the issue, a mother said she could not collect medication for her daughter “because I'm overdrawn and can’t pay”.

One man said he could not buy his wife’s arthritis medication because of five duplicate transactions showing on his account.

“Thanks for the beautiful Saturday Commonwealth Bank … There isn’t a word to describe the frustration with this.”

In a statement, CommBank urged customers to “be aware of increased scam activity”. “Remember, we’ll never send you an email or SMS asking for banking information like your NetBank Client ID, password, or NetCode; or include a link to login directly from an email or SMS.”