Commonwealth bank card declined

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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Topic summary

Issue: Payments with Commonwealth Bank (CBA) cards are being declined at checkout, often showing “invalid card details,” while other banks process normally.

Recent updates:

  • Shopify support attributes this to bank-side restrictions; suggests checking abandoned cart details for checkout error codes and directing customers to their bank.
  • Multiple merchants report the problem specifically with CBA-issued Mastercards. One saw it for the past week; another since April.
  • CBA initially reported no issues, then confirmed awareness via their credit card team, but provided no resolution. Merchants report lost sales.

Actions taken/suggested:

  • Lodge formal complaints with CBA and escalate.
  • File a complaint with the Small Business Finance Obudsman (1300 650 460) via https://www.asbfeo.gov.au (Dispute Support → Online form).
  • Apply public pressure (e.g., social media tagging CBA).
  • Temporary workaround: use virtual cards (e.g., privacy.com; halocard used successfully for an overseas customer).

Status: Unresolved and ongoing. Key open items: root cause at CBA, timeline for a fix, and confirmation of any Shopify-side factors from error codes.

Summarized with AI on December 10. AI used: gpt-5.
1

So when one of my customers uses their commonwealth bank card to purchase an item it cones up saying invalid card details but then when i try a different bank it goes through

2

Hey there @Deey

This is most likely a restriction from the customer’s bank directly and not something you will have any control over yourself. You can review the abandoned cart details in your admin to see any error codes being provided at the checkout. I also recommend referring customers to their bank for more information on why the cards are not being accepted.

3

Hi Deey,

I am having this exact issue for the past week with CBA issued Mastercards! CBA can’t see any issue their end, asked me to go to Shopify. Went to Shopify, says it’s the bank…I’ll be calling CBA again tomorrow to have them launch an investigation as I’m losing business because of this!

4

I’m having the same issue here. Commonwealth Bank cards declining. Who did you speak to at Commonwealth Bank?

5

I called again today, he spoke with the CC team and they confirmed that they are aware of this issue. But that was it!!! Left me no where and still losing sales. I’ve lodged a formal complaint and I will follow up again on Monday and try escalate. I would suggest you do the same, the more pressure, the better. In the mean time I’ll be posting on social media about it to see if anyone else is having the same issue and tagging CBA so it hopefully pops up their end.

6

Thanks Kylie, We’ve done the same today.

7

I’ve been having the issue since April. I’ve gotten no where with commonwealth as I’m not a commbank customer. I spent 5 hours today ringing around to find out my rights. Eventually I got hold of the Small Business Finance Obudsman on 1300 650 460 and they have directed me to file a complaint on their website https://www.asbfeo.gov.au click ‘dispute support’ click ‘online form’

8

Hey @Deey, had this happen to me two weeks ago with a customer’s bank card declining. After sitting on hold with the bank for a couple hours while hunting around for a solution (inevitably finding this post too) I came across virtual cards which ended up working. A pretty common one seems privacy . com, although they used halocard because said customer was based overseas. posting to help any others that have something similar!