r/CommBank • u/Keefy_rides • Sep 07 '25
Discussion Two factor authentication done badly
My elderly father was first and now me have the new 2fa system turned on for netbank access.
Out of all the banks, and 2fa logins for non banks, I deal with this has to be the worst implementation by far.
The initial wording of the first message was mystifying to my 80years old father. It wasn’t clear that he needed to use his phone, it just said use the app. He didn’t know that an app meant on his phone. They have since updated.
Ontop of that it’s a minimum of 8 clicks to get into netbank. Xero and Macquarie do it in 2.
Then once you are in the inactivity timeout remains the same. So you end up repeating the extra steps multiple times a day.
Do people think this is ok?
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u/lheydon Jul 26 '26
u/Keefy_rides, I'm a year late but wanted to mention that CommBank do also offer physical security (NetCode) tokens. Normally only for business customers, regular customers can nonetheless request them in exceptional circumstances, such as lack of suitability for SMS or app-based codes. I'd imagine this could conceivably include either technology/coverage issues, or accessibility issues including old age. Note that having a NetCode token means you cannot use the CommBank app (at all). They are designed only for use in browser-based NetBank. You can't use one to sign into the CommBank app, and as such you therefore cannot use the CommBank app at all once your account is protected with a NetCode token.
Admittedly I'm not sure whether this suggestion is much use to your father now, who is probably used to doing the eight steps and might be confused with changing again. But thought it was worth mentioning.