Hello, I am a Choice member. I have a bank account in the USA with US Bank – every time a transaction is made using my credit card account, I receive an email notification. None of my Aussie banks offer this option – which I think would greatly assist in rapid customer notification of credit card fraud. Is this an issue that Choice could raise – especially given this article:
Depending on which Aussie bank you have chosen that service may already be available.
Suncorp offers App users one method.
Our CC provider also provides SMS notifications. Both require the account user to access optional settings through either online account access or the services App.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they were all required to offer it? I checked ING and Westpac and saw nothing to alert about individual charges. If I missed it I would be pleased for someone to point it out. Macquarie is slick and ‘has it all’ in their app.
From experience Westpac systems caught and notified me of probably fraudulent charges in real-time but in the early hours. I woke to a slew of messages. Never had an issue with my ING account so cannot comment.
An email or text or push notification from an app, per charge, whether at 0200 hours or mid-day has to be an improvement. Perhaps it comes under some banks modelling that costs of restitution are less from their bottom line than implementing this service?
As far as I can tell ANZ, NAB, UBank, Comm Bank do NOT offer this service. Is this an issue Choice can take up?
Should be easy enough for the Banks to do – costs money, of course – but must be cheaper than dealing with thousands of cases after the fact – as reported in the ABC article?
Westpac can do email notification of transactions or push notifications to the Westpac app. I get a push notification to my phone for every transaction on any of my accounts, and email notification of some other types of changes, eg change of personal settings.
In Westpac online, go to Service > Preferences > Notifications and Marketing.
The ANZ referencing @choicemember1 comment does offer a service. It is limited. That ANZ can and do should support the ability of a bank to implement the same for a broader range of transactions.
It’s like we are partway there, depending on which services and bank. Perhaps as an alternative the banks would see a push notification to an App a simpler lower cost solution at their end?
Osko – whatever it is, is a drop in the bucket compared to regular credit card accounts.
And, as far as I can tell the new ANZ App – ANZ Plus – does not offer this service… and also shouldn’t just be offered to ‘new’ customers or those who chose (are forced to) get new Apps/Accounts to get the higher interest rates (which is another banking scam, but that’s a different topic).
Could be a service to ALL ANZ banking customers.
Let’s face it the big Aussie Banks should all offer these services – they can ask US Bank how it is done – policies, procedures, and likely even computer code are all known…
Assuming Choice knows how to contact the Banks – as it is almost impossible for customers to give this type of feedback.
My bank doesn’t notify me every time a transaction is made using my CC.
But: they picked up a fraudulent one and contacted me, and I picked up one 20 days after it happened and a chargeback was done without any problems.
I wonder with the increasing use of cards instead of cash nowadays how heavy the traffic would be every time we paid for a coffee, lunch, transport, shopping, etc etc… in a short space with our CC?
I am on the side that we should each be able to receive notifications if we wish. Difficulties reconciling/checking charges some have was mentioned in other topics, such as a local chicken shop showing as a construction company. Less-routine charges may not be as relatable to what they were?
Further, a charge back might be knocked back or a post-event fraud could require a card to be cancelled long after the fact and having to review all entries. Not difficult for most, but. I have about 50 charges a month and just turned on the notification option (thanks @isopeda). It will be interesting to see what my tolerance is for high activity times.
Agreed, it should be made optional.
I’m sure our banks would be able manage it without having to ask others how it’s done.
The difficulty in reconciling the name showing would still exist even when notified, but after the initial surprise we could work it out same as we do from our statements.
I probably have something similar to that. I don’t find the push notifications annoying, because it’s very easy to glance at the status bar when they come in, and make sure it’s a transaction I expected. I get similar push notifications from PayPal, too.
I think email alerts would be annoying, though. I did juggle Android’s notification sounds so that the push notifications don’t sound like (say) text or email messages. It wasn’t as simple as setting a specific sound for Westpac or Paypal alerts, of course! Some apps can do this, but those two don’t.
With the broader use of credit card and banking apps, email type notifications will possibly become redundant. Within these apps, one can see quickly and easily see payments made. Many of apps also have push notifications which send notifications when a transaction is made.
I think if you dig deeply enough you’ll find that most banks do offer this service. If they have phone apps - as they all tend to do - they’d probably have push notification as an option.
Thank you everyone! I’ve also searched Apps, accounts to figure out how to set notifications for the various banks I’m with and will see how I go. I have found this service helpful on overseas accounts and hope is the same for these.
I also wonder if these functions should be promoted by Banks (ABC etc) as an option to help prevent banking fraud?
