CBA cuts repayments without asking

COMMONWEALTH Bank customer Leanne Schwabe is frustrated her lender has dropped her mortgage repayments to the minimum amount without her consent.

The 48-year-old was paying an additional $400 per month on her owner-occupier loan up until she was told by CBA in an email it would be lowering her repayments this month – a change she did not want.

“It seemed after the Royal Commission a sneaky thing to do,” Ms Schwabe said.

“It’s going to add years to people’s loans and if they don’t go in and change it back themselves it will end up costing them more.

“CBA shouldn’t make detrimental choices on my behalf that is beneficial to them in the long run. They are treating us like we don’t understand our own finances.”

CBA is shifting 748,000 variable home loan customers making extra repayments to the minimum repayment over a five-day period, ending tomorrow. More than 3300 complaints have been made to the bank about the change.

A CBA spokesman said the move was being done to release more cash into Australians’ pockets during the COVID-19 pandemic, which had put financial pressures on many households.

“Over the past couple of months, and in particular since the coronavirus pandemic was declared, we have been contacted by hundreds of thousands of our customers seeking help and financial relief,” he said. “As a consequence, we have announced several measures to support our customers, including moving nearly three-quarters of a million of home loan borrowers to the monthly minimum amounts.”

It said this would be the equivalent of an average $400 per month extra in the customers’ pockets.

In email correspondence sent to customers, CBA said it would be making the “one-off change to your home loan direct debit repayment”.

‘They are treating us like we don’t understand our own finances’

“By paying the minimum, you’ll have access to extra money should you need it,” the email said.

People who don’t want this to occur must wait until the bank alters their repayment, then change it back using CBA’S app, online or a phone call.

Financial adviser Scott

Haywood said the move to force customers on to the minimum amounts was “a disgrace”.

“We’ve taken a lot of institutions on trust and now we’ve been burnt,” he said. Mr Haywood said many customers could easily miss an email notification from the bank informing them of the change.

“They simply cannot rely on an email going out which could end up in the junk box,” he said.