Overdrawing your account

There may be times when you try to make a transaction but don’t have enough money in your account. This may trigger an Overdrawn Fee, so it’s important to know what these are and how to minimise the chance of incurring them.

Preventing your account from overdrawing

If your account is overdrawn, it’s important to top up your balance as soon as possible to avoid overdrawing it further. You may incur multiple Overdrawn Fees and interest may be charged on the negative balance.

To help avoid them, it’s good to:

check your account frequently to make sure it has enough funds to cover your transactions.

allow enough time for deposits to be processed before you draw on the funds (some can take up to 5 business days).

keep track of your periodic payments (including direct debits and recurring payments) and reschedule them if you need to.
discover our range of tools and services available to help you budget and manage your cashflow effectively below.

What are Overdrawn Fees?

Fee type	How it is charged	Cost
Overdrawn Fee	You may be charged $15 if we honour a transaction that overdraws your account. - The fee is charged once daily, even if you make multiple transactions that overdraw your account on the same day. - If you overdraw your account further on another day, you’ll be charged again. - You’ll also be charged debit interest for as long as your balance remains negative.	$15 (max. per day) + interest accrued on negative balance¹

Fee type

How it is charged

Cost

Overdrawn Fee

You may be charged $15 if we honour a transaction that overdraws your account.

- The fee is charged once daily, even if you make multiple transactions that overdraw your account on the same day.

- If you overdraw your account further on another day, you’ll be charged again.

- You’ll also be charged debit interest for as long as your balance remains negative.

$15 (max. per day) + interest accrued on negative balance¹

Some example scenarios:

Mark pays his $50 phone bill by direct debit.

But he doesn’t realise his account balance is low – only $10 – when the phone bill is processed. This means his account is overdrawn by $40 and he incurs a $15 Overdrawn Fee. If he had opted in to receive low balance alerts, he could have received a notification on his phone and known to top up his account before it was overdrawn.

Jose pays an unexpected bill to fix his car after it breaks down.

But he forgets to check his balance after the transaction is processed, so he doesn’t have enough funds to cover the rent which is paid by direct debit two days later. His account is overdrawn by $200 and he incurs a $15 Overdrawn Fee. If Jose had Quick Balance on his Mobile Banking app, he might have found it easier to monitor his account’s balance and keep it topped up.

Sandra's monthly health insurance fee is dishonoured.

She has changed her account Overdraw Preference to ‘disable’, to prevent her account from overdrawing when it has insufficient funds. One day, the $120 direct debit is processed when she only has $60 in her account, so the transaction is dishonoured.

Overdraw Preference Feature

The Overdraw Preference feature is available on eligible personal accounts other than accounts held by persons under 18 years of age and the Concession Account. The feature is by default enabled on eligible accounts unless it has been disabled at your request or at our discretion.

What this means for you

When the Overdraw Preference is enabled, we may allow direct debits, periodical payments, and cheque withdrawals to overdraw your account, or increase the amount already overdrawn at the time of the transaction.

If you request for the Overdraw Preference feature to be disabled, we will decline any direct debits, periodical payments and cheque withdrawals that would cause your account to become overdrawn, or further overdrawn.

Situations where your account may still be overdrawn

If your Overdraw Preference is disabled, some transactions may still cause the account to become overdrawn:

where (at the relevant time) any of our relevant systems is offline or otherwise impaired or interrupted;
where the authorisation request is not sent to us, or received by us, for our review and for processing by our system (which may occur, for example, where the transaction is made using a cheque or a card linked to your account); or
where it is impossible or reasonably impractical for us to prevent your account from being overdrawn.

Under these scenarios, an Overdrawn Fee and debit interest may apply.

Where you can update your account Overdraw Preference

You can update your Overdraw Preference in Internet Banking by calling us or visiting your nearest branch.

For further information and applicable fees and charges please review the relevant Terms and Conditions applicable to your account.

Tools to help you manage your spend

Notifications and alerts

Pre-set an account limit and we’ll send a pop up alert straight to your phone if your balance falls below it. You can opt in to this free service via the Mobile Banking app so you don’t find yourself caught short of funds.

Learn more >

Quick Balance

Keep on top of your most recent card activity by setting up Quick Balance. No need to sign in to Mobile Banking; in a flash, you can see your account balance and also your 10 most recent transactions from the past 14 days.

Learn more >

Budget planner

This calculator lets you figure out the ins and outs of your account without having to do the maths. Compare earnings versus daily expenses and splash outs to see where you have room to grow and what needs a little trimming.

Learn more >

Spend tracker

Sort your spending patterns into categories via Internet or Mobile Banking. You’re sure to pick up on some handy insights with automatic monthly breakdowns, and you can even drill down further with sub-categories and stats.

Learn more >

Regular payments list

Review your periodical payments easily by asking us for a list of the regular payments and transactions on your account. You can request for a regular payments list in branch, with Internet or Mobile Banking, or by giving us call.

Did you know?

If you receive a protected payment such as income support or pension while your account is overdrawn, you may still be able to withdraw up to 90% of your fortnightly payment. See FAQs for more information

Are you eligible for a Concession account?

If you hold a Concession or Health Care card, or if you receive an eligible Australian Government benefit payment, you may be eligible for a Concession account which may only be overdrawn where it is impossible or impractical to prevent it².

Experiencing financial hardship?

In these uncertain times, we want to make sure all our customers are getting the support they need. If your circumstances have recently changed and you’re having difficulty managing your finances, we can help.

We've put together some tips and resources to help you stay on track. For further support, please call our Customer Assist Team on 1300 630 266 or visit us in-branch.

Important information

1. If your account becomes overdrawn and there is no overdraft arrangement in place (or any overdraft arrangement is insufficient to cover the overdrawn amount), debit interest will be charged to your account at the Unarranged Lending Rate. See the Transaction Savings and Investment Accounts Terms and Conditions for more information.

2. See the Transaction Savings and Investment Accounts Terms and Conditions for more information.