Jess Hardiman
A couple with £50,000 in savings were shocked to find their money suddenly vanished – leaving them with just 38p, and a bit of a mystery on their hands.
Elli Houston and Trae Murphy, from Melbourne, claim they had almost AUD $100,000 in their account, ready to finalise buying their dream home on the Murray River.
However, they say the money somehow went AWOL as they went through the settlement process, and they’ve been locked in a bitter dispute with the bank ever since.
“We want to know how this has happened, we want it money back and we want to move past this,” Trae told 7News.
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“It’s just really taken a toll on the both of us. We really just want to get to the bottom of it.
“It feels like everything has been taken away just as we were nearly there.”
The pair said they transferred AUD $96,000 (£50,650) from their Commonwealth Bank of Australia account into a Bank of Melbourne account on 30 June, but that it bounced back on 4 July.
After trying to fire the money over again, it bounced back for a second time.
However, the plot thickened further two weeks later, when they realised the money wasn’t actually in their account anymore – at which point they contacted the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Weirder still, the bank not only told Elli and Trae that there was no record of the money being sent over to the Bank of Melbourne account on either date, but also that their account had never held a balance that large in the past year.
Elli and Trae have now had to take out another loan so they can buy the property they wanted – and to add insult to injury they’re also having to fork out an extra $3,000 or so as a late settlement fee.
They were told in a letter from the bank: “The CBA has conducted a thorough review of our records.
“CBA confirms that the screenshots do not match CBA’s records of your accounts or the balance held in your accounts.”
Elli and Trae have filed a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, but have been told it could be a matter of weeks before they hear anything back.
Tyla has reached out to Commonwealth Bank of Australia for comment.