Commonwealth Bank suffers major outage

The banking major is calling for patience as customers say they’re unable to pay for petrol or groceries.

Thousands of Commonwealth Bank customers have been locked out of their accounts and unable to access their money, with the bank warning of payment delays due to technical issues plaguing its online services.

More than 3000 people across the country reported issues with Commonwealth Bank services since 7.30am on Monday according to outage website DownDetector, with app users greeted with an error message stating “current balance unavailable, we’ll show your balance from the last time you logged on.”

Customers trying to access the bank’s desktop web page meanwhile were being told, “Sorry, something’s gone wrong.”

Users on social media complained of being unable to pay for petrol or groceries. Some users reported issues paying bills via direct debit, while others reported problems accessing the bank’s financial services platform CommSec.

UPDATE: 11.30AM - Our branches are open but there may be delays as we serve other customers. Please be aware our branch staff will not have further information. Thank you for your patience and, please be mindful of the wellbeing of our people as they continue to service customers

— CommBank (@CommBank) June 26, 2023

The bank has around 15 million customers nationally, and about 7.7 million using its mobile banking app CommBank according to its website.

It first commented on the issue in a Twitter post at 10.44am, and said it was “urgently investigating” the issue that had impacted its services.

“I had to transfer money into/out of CBA accounts, but unable to. The end of the tax year is looming. It’s frustrating to encounter such issues at this time,” one customer wrote in response.

“I’m having difficulties too… as in I can’t put fuel in my car because monies I’m waiting on haven’t gone through. Can’t buy food or pet food. Kids I can’t collect from school. But I don’t suppose we’ll get compensated for CommBank errors,” another wrote.

Commonwealth Bank is Australia’s largest bank and notices at some of its physical branches told customers that cash withdrawals were being limited to $300 per person, with customers also required to show photo identification in order to complete a withdrawal.

The company said in a Twitter post at 4.15pm AEST on Monday that it had identified the cause of the issue and that services were being restored, but that some payments would be delayed.

“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. We know how much customers depend on us and sincerely apologise to those who have been impacted today,” it said in a statement.

“Please note there may be delays in some payments as we continue to bring services back online.”