{"id":31339,"date":"2025-07-30T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/31339\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T01:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T01:45:09","slug":"thousands-of-australians-are-set-to-receive-bank-refunds-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/31339\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Australians are set to receive bank refunds. Here’s what to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 800,000 banking customers are eligible for refunds totalling $60 million.<\/p>\n

It comes after a review of banks found customers had been unfairly charged high fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s what to know about the refunds and whether you’re eligible.<\/p>\n

Why are banks giving refunds?<\/p>\n

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last year revealed<\/a> banks had knowingly kept at least 2 million customers in high-fee accounts despite them qualifying for cheaper products.<\/p>\n

The customers, who receive government concession payments, were found to have been unfairly charged dishonour, overdraw, assisted withdrawal and account-keeping fees.<\/p>\n

The report named ANZ, Bankwest, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac as having overcharged customers.<\/p>\n

Loading…Which banks will issue refunds?<\/p>\n

The latest ASIC report<\/a> said some banks have agreed to provide compensation to more than 770,000 affected customers. They are:<\/p>\n

Why isn’t Commonwealth Bank issuing refunds?<\/p>\n

Commonwealth Bank and its subsidiary Bankwest have refused to refund the $270 million it had charged low-income customers.<\/p>\n

Commbank refuses to pay millions in refunds to low-income customers<\/a><\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of Australians slugged more than $60 million in excessive bank fees could soon get a refund, but Commonwealth Bank customers may not see a cent of $270 million in unfair charges.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the bank argued the fees “were disclosed to customers and were charged in accordance with their terms and conditions”.<\/p>\n

The bank has previously made $25 million in “goodwill payments” to about 87,000 Indigenous concession customer accounts.<\/p>\n

“Where customers have incurred unusually high fees, we consider goodwill adjustments where appropriate while continuing to provide access to lower-fee options,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the bank said it would move 1.5 million eligible customers to a “new nominal fee account” that is yet to be approved.<\/p>\n

ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said the commission currently isn’t considering legal action against Commonwealth Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is an issue about doing the right thing by customers, and in particular, doing the right thing by customers on low incomes, who can least afford to be hit by high and unfair fees.”<\/p>\n

How will I know if I’m getting a refund?<\/p>\n

Your bank will contact you in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Westpac said customers who are eligible can expect to receive a refund notification through their preferred communication method, which is “usually via letter and\/or email”.<\/p>\n

“If those contact details are unavailable, alternative methods such as SMS or phone calls may be used,” a Westpac spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Your bank will notify you if you’re set to receive a refund.\u00a0 (ABC Kimberley: Esse Deves)<\/p>\n

Do I need to do anything to receive it?<\/p>\n

If you’re eligible for a refund, it will be deposited into your account automatically.<\/p>\n

The deposit will appear as a “refund” on your account statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Westpac said the bank expects to process most refunds by the end of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 800,000 banking customers are eligible for refunds totalling $60 million. It comes after a review of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5629,29370,29372,5799,29366,64,63,9671,29369,29368,29371,27136,29367,99,96,29365,29364,8420],"class_list":["post-31339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-anz","tag-anz-fee-refund","tag-anz-refund","tag-asic","tag-asic-low-income-bank-fees","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bank","tag-bank-fee-refund","tag-bank-fees-refund","tag-bank-refund","tag-bankwest","tag-bendigo-bank-refund","tag-business","tag-commonwealth-bank","tag-fees","tag-refunds","tag-westpac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31339","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=31339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}