{"id":262087,"date":"2025-11-04T14:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262087\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T14:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:05:11","slug":"choice-shonky-awards-2025-big-names-shamed-as-commbank-temu-and-hcf-called-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262087\/","title":{"rendered":"Choice Shonky Awards 2025: Big names shamed as CommBank, Temu and HCF called out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">From questionable pieces of clothing to <a class=\"css-445i33-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perthnow.com.au\/news\/australia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Australia<\/a>\u2019s biggest bank, consumer advocacy group Choice has unveiled the \u201cworst of the worst\u201d in its annual Shonky Awards \u2014 featuring the usual offenders alongside some surprising newcomers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">The consumer advocacy group marked 20 years of its awards, which call out the dodgiest products, services and companies letting down Aussie consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Topping the 2025 list was Commonwealth Bank, slammed for refusing to refund millions in unfair fees charged to low-income consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Choice says 2.2 million people were slugged $270 million in fees that never should\u2019ve been charged but the bank has refused to issue bulk refunds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">It\u2019s the fourth time CommBank has landed a Shonky, making it the most awarded company in the event\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Choice CEO Ashley de Silva told PerthNow \u201c Commonwealth Bank is a fair winner due to selling customers unfair fees and the ASIC investigation into the bank earlier this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Online <a class=\"css-445i33-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.perthnow.com.au\/news\/business\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">retail<\/a> giant Temu also scored, accused of selling unsafe and poor-quality products and failing to protect shoppers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Choice testing found every button battery product they bought from Temu failed safety standards \u2014 and one of the site\u2019s hoodies even caught fire, badly burning an eight-year-old girl in Queensland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Health insurer HCF was called out for what Choice labelled a \u201cprice rise in disguise\u201d, while energy retailers were shamed for confusing pricing tactics that left customers overpaying.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2ebfb2cc79f32cb2a4e7d8d46ffa872e7f82a66f-16x9-x229y147w1787h1005.jpg\" alt=\"Commonwealth Bank topped the 2025 list. \" class=\"css-16r7l45-StyledImage en5ut4d0\"\/>Camera IconCommonwealth Bank topped the 2025 list.  Credit: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Other \u201cwinners\u201d included the Handy Heater Turbo 800 \u2014 described by Choice as a plug-in heater that \u201cdoesn\u2019t plug in, or heat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">\u201cFrom airlines to banks and even camel milk, the Shonkys are about holding businesses to account and standing up for Australian consumers,\u201d Mr de Silva said.<\/p>\n<p>Full list of Shonky Award winners 2025Commonwealth BankTemuHandy Heater Turbo 800Energy retailersHCF<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9cqv6l-StyledPNParagraph e8utp6u0\">Commonwealth Bank has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From questionable pieces of clothing to Australia\u2019s biggest bank, consumer advocacy group Choice has unveiled the \u201cworst of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,8878,99,44,5216],"class_list":["post-262087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-banking","tag-business","tag-news","tag-retail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}