Credit Card Fraud Warning

An AFF member is unimpressed with Bankwest after their credit card was stolen and used for $4,000 worth of fraudulent transactions. opusman immediately contacted Bankwest to dispute the transactions. But Bankwest has advised that it will take up to 8 weeks to investigate.

In the meantime, opusman says the bank has instructed them to continue paying off the card in full – including for all of the fraudulent transactions made by someone else! Failure to do so would result in the accrual of credit card interest.

So it’s a fact of life if you use credit cards online sooner or later your card number will get stolen and used fraudulently. I’ve had it happen a few times including just recently with Bankwest.

Turns out Bankwest’s “policy” is that the charges stay on your statement for up to 8 weeks while they investigate. They advise continuing to pay your bill as normal – and if that means paying off the full amount, including the fraudulent charges.

Since this was about $4000 worth of fraudulent charges they can go jump! Of course if you don’t pay off the full amount they’ll charge interest – now they say they’ll refund it, but what if that means interest also gets charged on other purchases too. Will they refund it all?

Unfortunately, credit card fraud can happen to anyone. But most banks will remove disputed or fraudulent charges from a customer’s credit card account while they are being investigated.

Bankwest would eventually refund the fraudulent payments if it is found that the cardholder is not responsible for them. The bank has also said that any interest charged due to the unauthorised transaction would be refunded on completion of the investigation. But such a situation could be seriously damaging in the short-term to somebody without the financial means to pay for the fraudulent transactions. Our members are not impressed with Bankwest’s “guilty until proven innocent” approach, noting that anyone could be a victim of credit card fraud through no fault of their own.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Not impressed with BankWest

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.