Around the time I started this petition, I requested the bank with whom I have a credit card debt to adjust my loan to refund the double interest payment over the past year. To do this, I suggested they change from compound interest to simple interest so they would automatically stop charging me interest twice and I requested they backdate the change to the start of the financial year.

The Bank sent me a nice email saying they were complying with the contract terms of the debt. Since there was no basis for my request, they would not do as I requested and continued to debit my credit card because I owed them the money, and they were entitled to do it.

I then went to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and complained that the Bank was debiting my account but not paying the vendor to whom I owed money. Instead, they were taking the money, putting it into their capital account, and claiming it as a return on capital but not reducing the amount I owed. 

The AFCA asked the Bank to resolve the issue. The Bank assigned a case officer who spent about an hour with me on the phone trying to resolve the matter. They argued that what they were doing was right because I owed them interest, and I should pay it. I agreed with them but claimed they were not upholding their agreement to extend the loan. Debiting a credit card account gives money to the vendor requesting it. I argued that they had not given me the money to extend the loan. They argued that I owed the interest and why they should give me the money to pay it. In other words, they believed it was their money, and I was just renting it. The case officer and their superiors decided not to do what I requested and offered me $500 for my work in making the complaint if I withdrew it, which I refused.

The complaint is now back with the AFCA, and they are taking it seriously. I have repeated the suggestion that the bank change to simple interest and discuss with the Reserve Bank and the government how best to do it. However, the simplest solution would be for one bank to do it for home loans, and the rest would follow, as home loans would cost 30% less, and the bank would be better off if they lent the repayments and profits to another customer.

There is a justification for paying interest. There is no justification for paying it twice.