Reviewing your accounts is not about watching the balance. It is about reading the transaction list often enough that you still remember what each line was for. That memory is the whole advantage: an unfamiliar payment is easy to explain a week after it happens and close to impossible to work out six months later.
This guide sets out a regular review routine for three patterns that cause most confusion — direct debits, card-on-file charges and small test transactions — and the order to work through when you find something you cannot place.
Why a routine beats a one-off clean-up
Money leaves an account in ways you authorised and then forgot: a subscription that renewed after a trial, a merchant billing under its parent company's name, an annual fee that recurs every twelve months, or your own bank's monthly account keeping charge. Fraud is one possible explanation, not the default one.
Moneysmart, ASIC's consumer money guidance site, directs people who find a transaction they don't recognise to start by checking what payments have gone out of the account, and it separately reminds account holders to look out for monthly account keeping fees their bank charges (moneysmart.gov.au). Both points matter for the same reason: the first place to look is your own records, and the fastest explanations are usually the least dramatic.
Set up two reviews, not one
A single annual clean-up is too slow to be useful. Two short passes work better.
Weekly scan (about five minutes). Open your banking app, scroll the last seven days, and tap every line you cannot name immediately. Read the full merchant descriptor rather than the truncated version in the list. Search your email for the merchant name or the amount. If a payment still makes no sense after a minute, flag it rather than moving on.
Monthly reconciliation (twenty to thirty minutes). List every payment that repeated during the month. Check it against the subscriptions you actually use. Confirm which direct debits and card-on-file arrangements are still active. Look at any bank fee lines. Update a running list of recurring payments — a note on your phone or a spreadsheet is enough.
If you hold a joint account, do this together. Moneysmart notes that joint accounts come with particular benefits and risks, and one of them is practical: a payment you don't recognise may simply be the other account holder's.
The three patterns worth hunting
Direct debits pull money straight from your BSB and account number under an authority you gave the business. Because they don't involve your card, cancelling the card does not stop them. Check any debit you no longer want with both the business and your bank, and confirm each one's process rather than assuming.
Card-on-file charges are recurring charges against a stored card number — streaming, apps, deliveries, gyms, cloud storage. Cancelling with the merchant is usually the first step, but if a merchant keeps charging after cancellation, or stops responding, ask your bank about blocking further charges or replacing the card.
Small test transactions are the one to treat as a signal rather than a nuisance. Card details are sometimes validated with a very small charge before anything larger is attempted, and small amounts are also used because they're easy to miss. Practical interpretation: if a tiny unknown charge appears, do not wait to see whether something bigger follows. Chase it the same day.
Reading the line: a quick triage
| What you see | What to check | Usual explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant name you don't recognise | Parent or trading name; search descriptor with the amount | Legitimate billing under a different name |
| Same amount, same day each month | Email receipts; app subscription settings | Subscription you forgot or no longer use |
| Small, odd amount, unknown merchant | Other cards and accounts; recent online sign-ups | Card test, or pre-authorisation before a real charge |
| Charge larger than the purchase price | Final settlement after a hold, tip or fuel pre-auth | Timing difference, not double-charging |
| Fee line from your own bank | Account type and monthly fee treatment | Account keeping fee — check Moneysmart's advice on these |
| Money in that you don't expect | Sender reference; recent activity | Possible mistaken payment — don't spend it |
How to query a transaction you don't recognise
Work through the steps in order; each one is cheaper than the next.
- Identify the merchant. Use the full descriptor, the BSB and account number for direct debits, and any reference field. Check the app store subscription lists on your phone, and ask anyone else with access to the account.
- Look for your own paper trail. Search your email for the merchant name and the amount. Check order history in apps you use.
- Contact the merchant if it looks like a billing error, a duplicate, or a subscription you meant to cancel. Ask for the charge to be reversed or stopped and note the date, the person and any reference number.
- Contact your bank if you cannot identify the payment, if the merchant is unresponsive, or if you believe the transaction was unauthorised. Ask what their process is, whether any time limits apply, and whether the bank has signed up to ASIC's ePayments Code, which Moneysmart notes governs how unauthorised and mistaken transactions on personal accounts are handled.
- Secure the account. If card details may be compromised, freeze or cancel the card in the app, change passwords on the merchant account and your email, and check your other accounts and cards for the same pattern.
- Keep records and follow up. Confirm what was said in writing, keep reference numbers, and ask when to expect an outcome. If the bank's answer doesn't resolve it, use the bank's internal complaints process and then ask for details of the external dispute resolution scheme it belongs to.
One rule worth stating plainly: contact your bank using the number on the back of your card or the official app, never a number supplied in a message about the problem. A common follow-up scam involves someone contacting you about an unfamiliar charge and offering to "help" you reverse it.
Reducing the surface
Turn on transaction alerts for every card so unfamiliar activity surfaces the moment it happens. Keep a subscription register with the sign-up date, amount and cancellation method. Remove saved card details from merchants you no longer use. Where your bank offers virtual or single-use card numbers, consider using them for free trials and one-off online purchases. If you're on a joint account, agree who is allowed to set up new direct debits and say so out loud.
Your next step
Tonight: switch on transaction notifications for every card and account you hold. This weekend: run the monthly reconciliation above and build the subscription register as you go. If you find a payment you can't place, work through the six query steps in that order, starting with your own records and ending with your bank.
General information only
This article is general information about reviewing Australian bank and card accounts. It is not legal, financial or personal advice, and it does not guarantee that any charge will be reversed, refunded or waived. Processes, responsibilities and time limits vary between banks and depend on your account type, so confirm current details with your bank and with Moneysmart (moneysmart.gov.au) before acting.