Newsflash: CommBank Sucks

Scott,

I have just received an email from the Commonwealth Bank that has left me furious. Without my consent they have reduced my home loan repayments to the minimum amount, to ‘help’ me during COVID-19. This change is promoted in the email as coming from the goodness of their community-spirited heart. I am gobsmacked there is not even an ‘opt out’ button. Instead you have to wait until May to change repayments back to the level you want, by which time most of us will have forgotten, and will then coast along for the next 20 years paying more than we should. Is this as dreadful an act of corporate greed dressed up as charity as it seems to me? 

Belinda

Hi Belinda,

No, I think you’ve nailed it.

Last year Commbank crowed about their plan to spend $5 billion on technology to serve their customers better.

Look, I’m no geek, but surely that’s enough dough to make a button appear on your internet banking that says:

“Click here if you want to reduce to making minimum repayments because of the Corona Crisis. Otherwise continue making higher repayments, you bloody legend!” (Or something like that.)

This behaviour reinforces my golden rule: don’t get between a bank and a bucket of money.

So what can you do?

Well, if you’re employed, right now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the banker off your back. And, as I’ve long said, there are only two ways to pay off your mortgage faster:

Make extra repayments (well, CommBank have temporarily buggered that one), or get a lower interest rate.

So check out online lenders, some of whom are 20% cheaper (or more) than CBA’s standard variable offering.

It’s almost as easy as clicking a button.

Scott