If a cash machine swallows your card ...

[naranjajooce]

... without giving you the money, and the money is debited from your account, but the bank that owns the cash machine denies there was any discrepancy, how to proceed?

My DH tried to take out £70 at a Tescos cash machine. The money wasn't issued, but it was debited. The card wasn't returned. His bank (Nationwide) contacted Tescos Bank who deny any responsibility.

I suspect the machine may have been tampered with, but DH thinks its just a mistake ... he will be phoning his bank on Monday to try and sort it out. In the meantime, has anyone had a similar experience with insight to share?

I didn't lose my card but the machine didn't give me the money but took it from my account. I called the bank and they sorted it straight out. Hopefully the same happens for your DH

My card was returned but the cash was swallowed up before I could take it. I phoned my bank (First Direct) and they returned it at once.

There should be a camera above the cashpoint, so you'd think they could identify exactly when it happened and look at the machine camera. And see that no money came out?

I’ve never had my card taken, but I have had the machine not give the money, it did appear on my account, but was cancelled out, I called them and they knew it hadn’t given the money.

It could be the machine was broken, or he took too long to recover it. It’s odd for the machine owners to though deny it.

He was just told that no "discrepancy" was reported from the cash machine, whatever that means. I expect nobody took the time to look at cameras. But DH will be asking a lot of questions when he phones on Monday.

Surely the total of cash held will be up by £70. This will prove that DH didn’t receive it

And they will have the card. They will know if it didn’t dispense, so nothing to be worried about.

Ive worked in depts that process these but a long time ago.
it should retract. And that should be on the atms log.
but sounds like it maybe went wrong if it also ate the card?
do they have the card?
honestly cant remember but if it says retract you probably do get the money back. If not it might be if the atm is ‘over’ when balanced.
did it definitely debit the amount. As so many customers get confused on the statements. The card numbers are often on the statement and online you may be able to check the statement for location of the atm. Sometimes transactions appear on a monday for a sunday one etc. So could be say withdraw saturday get 70 shows up monday. But go back sunday for 70 also and machine eats card with no debit?

usually it eats the card
if you input pin wrong too many times
or you leave it there after taking the cash.

could the machine have been tampered with?

Hopefully they'll just refund him swiftly. The machine ate the card and didn't dispense the cash. That's the truth so hopefully they'll either believe him or check.

Was this today?

If so, I bet it’s resolved by Tuesday absolute latest (ie, after a full working day).

The machines balance themselves at the end of the day so, combined with your calls, the camera and the fact that they have the card it shouldn’t be an issue.

(I used to work in retail banking)

personally i prefer to use banks own machines inside the bank so if theres any errors etc

I do worry it was tampered with.
It happened on July 15th. Nationwide immediately refunded the £70 pending their enquiries with the third party ATM provider. But then DH received a letter yesterday saying there was "no discrepancy" so Nationwide are taking the £70 back again. That's why I think there may have been a scam. Presumably "no discrepancy" means the ATM records were balanced i.e. there wasn't an extra £70 in the machine. It doesn't mean that they checked CCTV footage of what happened before, during and after the transaction, or even confirmed why his card was retained.

Imho, If the machine accounts were balanced, then either someone tampered with the machine and somehow took the money after we left, or else the person who serviced the machine took the money.

Did he get his card back? I mean this politely, and you don’t need to answer, or honestly, but is there money issues, could he have taken it and not wish to admit it,?

I would try and take a photo of the screen if quick enough. In any event contact the bank straight away. I try and only take money out using a proper bank cash machine, when they are open, so they might be able to do something immediately about the card.

He didn't get the card back. He immediately cancelled it an ordered a new card. I was with him when it happened. There are no money issues.

It’s very odd then to be honest. Maybe someone else got his money

Did you wait long enough, sometimes these machines take ages, and the money comes out first,

After a few minutes of trying and failing to dispense the cash it said something like "Card Retained" and then returned to the Welcome screen. We warned the person who was waiting behind us (who went to find another machine), then left. DH immediately reported the incident to Nationwide, and cancelled his card.

I've got a new theory. It's a joint account, so when DH couldn't get the £70 from the Tesco machine, I used my card to get it from a different machine nearby. So there were two debits for £70. Its possible that Nationwide checked the wrong one. That's something to check when DH calls Nationwide on Monday.

I've checked the statements and I'm even more convinced this is what happened. The Tescos machine where the £70 was retained is a 'LINK' machine, whereas the transaction Nationwide checked was from a 'NOTEMACHINE'.

The second transaction was outside Sainsburys who apparently sold all their machines to NOTEMACHINE last year.

Hopefully that solves the mystery - will check on Monday.

I never use Sainsbury’s ATM’s. Although they have nothing to actually do with Sainsbury’s these days.
They never work, never ever have any money in them.

Going against the grain here but just want to chuck this out there as another possible scenario, just thinking outside the box:

Do you have any proof your husband tried to get money out? Any chance he could have spent it elsewhere? Gambling, loan sharks or worse?

I was with him when it happened.

And we now have evidence that Nationwide investigated the wrong transaction, so we just need to wait for them to investigate the right transaction.

Contact the bank

sorry….seems obvious to me.

Why start a thread?

Why comment on a thread without reading the op's updates?