Thursday 4 June 2015

ATM Dispute

 
Ever had a disagreement with an ATM/autobank/hole in the wall?  Grrr!!

On Tuesday night I tried to withdraw £130.  I was being organised and had planned ahead how much cash I needed for the next wee while.  So when the machine whirred and whirred and nothing came out I started to panic.  The slot where the cash comes out didn't open.  At all!  My card and receipt came out but no cash. Without thinking I put my card back in for a balance statement and it said that I had withdrawn the £130.

So one phone call later to my bank and I was advised to wait 24 hours to "see if it credits itself" *rolls eyes*

A quick dash from school just after 3pm today meant I got to a branch just before it closed (my bank is only open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday!!!)  and was able to talk to a real person.  Long story short, I'm one of the 1 in 10 people whose money didn't "credit itself" and had to raise an official ATM Dispute.  If I'm "lucky" it'll only take a few days to check the figures and verify my dispute.  Or I might be unlucky and it'll take a few weeks.

Seriously???  A few weeks to give me back MY OWN MONEY.  And no, I'm not entitled to an explanation or compensation either.  That's a lot of money to just disappear into the system.

Fortunately I have some savings and will be able to cover my bills once I transfer some money.  But what if I didn't?  What about all those people who live pay check to pay check, carefully budgeting every penny and don't have the luxury of savings?

Technology is a wonderful thing, when it works.  Computers rule the world and we're far too reliant on them especially when it comes to money.  A timely reminder for me on a few things

6 comments:

  1. That's why I use the bank. It happened to me once and it took ages for me to get both my card and the cash back!!

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  2. An all-too-frequent occurrence, banks and computers seem to rule the world now.

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  3. This happened to me too. The money was deducted from my balance but I didn't get any cash. When I phoned the bank, they said it would take a few days to correct itself. Fortunately, we had sufficient funds in the bank to allow me to go to another cash machine and withdraw the money we needed. We live in a village and two of our banks have closed. The one remaining bank charges me money to withdraw as my account is not with them. So I have no choice but to use the cash machine.

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  4. What pain, typical bank attitude, after all it's only our money.

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  5. Do they not have cameras at all the bank machines over there? They should be able to look at the recording and see that no money came out of the machine. What a pain. You are right, what about the people that live paycheck to paycheck, are they supposed to go to the foodbank because they have no grocery money? Very frustrating!!

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  6. Janice, we do have cameras so I'm confident that it's easy to establish that no money came out. After talking to friends and colleagues this is actually a common problem.

    Many of us simply can't get inside a bank and talk to a real person easily any more, for loads of reasons including location and opening hours.

    Somebody somewhere has MY money and they've got it free until a computer puts it back into MY account. Can you imagine the fuss if it was other way round???

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