Brisbane mechanic Michael Reynolds was due for a hard-earned holiday, so when he saw a second-hand caravan selling for just $5900 he jumped at the chance to buy it.
The neat little camper trailer was all he needed for an end-of-summer break in Cairns.
But that holiday never happened.
READ MORE: Kathleen Folbigg walks free after 20 years in jail
Instead, for the last two months, Reynolds has found himself stuck in a banking nightmare after making one tiny mistake which saw his $5900 seemingly vanish without a trace.
The mistake happened when Reynolds was transferring his money online to the seller of the caravan.
"The seller had written his bank details down on a bit of paper," Reynolds said.
Eager to get the deal done, Reynolds opened up his ANZ online banking app and typed in the seller's BSB, account number and account name, before hitting transfer on the funds.
Reynolds then sent a screenshot of the payment to the seller, who immediately saw a problem – the account number was missing a digit.
However, the payment appeared to have been processed.
READ MORE: National 'misery index' up 220 per cent as Aussies struggle
Although online banking transactions require the recipient's name, BSB and account number, most banks only check the BSB and account number.
Within five minutes of the transaction, Reynolds said he was on the phone with his ANZ bank manager to alert him to the error.
"I called him immediately and he told me that, because the account number was a digit too short, the transaction wouldn't go through and the money would bounce back," Reynolds said.
Relieved, Reynolds made another transfer of $5900, this time to the correct account number, and waited for the money from the first transaction to reappear.
However, weeks later, the money from the March 14 transaction, sent to a Suncorp Bank account, still hadn't bounced back.
"All ANZ would tell me was that a trace had been done and the funds couldn't be recovered," Reynolds said.
Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at
"It's hard to convey the massive runaround I've had," Reynolds said, adding he had cancelled his holiday because of the financial stress and resold the caravan.
"The average person would probably have said, screw it, it's not worth my time.
"I've taken days off work to get my head around what's gone wrong."
In a letter written to Reynolds by ANZ after he lodged a complaint, the bank said: "We tried to recover the money in accordance with the ePayments code.
"Unfortunately, the other bank has not been able to retrieve the funds from the recipient."
The letter told Reynolds to lodge a dispute with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority should he wish to take the matter further.
A spokesperson for ANZ declined to make a comment on the case when contacted by 9news.com.au.
However, when 9news.com.au contacted Suncorp Bank, the matter was resolved within 24 hours, and the money swiftly returned to Reynolds' bank account.
In a statement, Suncorp executive general manager Nick Fernando said: "If a customer makes a transfer in error, Suncorp Bank works with other financial institutions to resolve this through a dispute resolution process.
"We make every effort to move quickly to minimise impacts on the customer, however at times these processes involve multiple parties and can be complex."
Calls for banks to cross-check names
Reynolds' case comes amid continued calls from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for Australian banks to implement technology – already in place in overseas countries such as England and the Netherlands – which matches online bank transfers with account names.
As well as helping eliminate mistaken online payments, it's believed such a move would go a long way in reducing internet scams, which are now costing Australian victims billions of dollars.
Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Bank was the first to make a move in this direction, launching NameCheck, its own verification technology which indicates whether account details entered by customers to make a first-time payment match those in the bank's database.
Speaking in April after the release of the ACCC's Targeting Scams Report, the commission's deputy chair Catriona Lowe said more change was needed across Australia's banking industry.
"Traditional bank transfers remain one of the most commonly reported payment methods to scammers. While some banks have made recent positive steps to protect their customers, we would welcome uniform measures across the sector, similar to the UK's Confirmation of Payee, which matches an account number to the intended recipient across all banks," Lowe said.
A spokesperson for the Australian Banking Association said the introduction of PayID five years ago was already going some way towards addressing the issue.
"(PayID) allows the person paying money to know who they are paying, before they pay. There were 15 million PayID registrations as of 1 May 2023," the spokesperson said.
"We also need to recognise that payee confirmation does not help to prevent many common types of scams, and consumer vigilance is still required."