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?

Happened to me last year on christmas eve! The bank machine at Tesco swallowed my card, didnt give me £100 cash and it was taken from my account. I called my bank (first direct) who said it was normally automatically returned within 48 hours but if not they would raise a dispute. Nothing came in after the 48 hours (but it was obv christmas). The bank refunded the money back into my account about 10 days later and I received a letter to say the dispute had been settled in my favour.

I walked away and left 200 in the machine the other day. I contacted my bank via the chat app and it was returned almost immediately. The fact DH didn’t even get his card back surely makes it straightforward. There will be cctv on the machine if you need to escalate further though

Yep, its been escalated. As mentioned, we now know the bank investigated the wrong transaction, at the wrong cash machine, so the cctv would have shown me using my card to successfully withdraw the £70 from our joint account. Instead, they need to investigate my husband's transaction from 20 minutes earlier, at a different ATM, where his card was swallowed and the money didn't come out.

DH did give them the correct time and the correct ATM postcode, so the bank just made a mistake by investigating the later transaction instead.

Hopefully it’s easily sorted now you’ve figured out the error. Obviously the Sainsbury machine balanced as you got your cash 😂 I’m pretty sure Tesco machines are serviced by RBS and as it was so long ago the machine was probably already balanced in the interim (have to do it at least every 30 days) so the cash over will be easy to find and resolved.

But regarding CCTV it may be slightly different but I work in bank and have balanced a machine in instances of this being reported. But I’m not allowed to rewind the CCTV due to GDPR. I can watch it live but without an auth code we can no longer rewind (this started about 4 years ago before then we used to be able to look through which was super helpful)

Hope it's sorted for you soon @naranjajooce .
On a side note, last year I withdrew £200 from the Nationwide, and went straight to a travel shop to buy the equivalent in euros.
However, when I counted out the cash, the ATM had only given me £180.
I never check/count the dispensed money and if I hadn't been buying euros, I never would have known.
It was sorted for me (I was worried that I couldn't prove it), but I wonder how often these errors occur, and how many of us count the cash that comes out?

My husband has also had his card swallowed up twice, and I think I have once, a long time ago.

On a happier note, going back a few years, I went to a university cashpoint and there was a £20 note sticking out. I took it to the campus security and they said if nobody claimed it within 2 months, I could keep it.
Which I did.

I once found £200 on an ATM in Sainsbury's. I handed it in and was told I should have left it alone as it would have retracted. I had no idea..

I once used a cash machine at a bank, it spat out a crumpled pile of notes far more than I asked for, I went into the bank and there was a customer there filling out a form because the machine hadn't dispensed his, turns out the machine was jammed and had chewed up his cash before spitting it out with mine, maybe this is a possibility. I hope you get sorted Op

My debit card was.eaten by an ATM on the wall of a Sainsbury Store about.a year ago. The ATM had some new software installed which hasn't working properly.

I rang the the 0800 phone number on the ATM and told them my problem and what had happened.

They said that the card would be inside the ATM machine and would not be returned.

And that l should ring my bank. Report the matter and ask for a new debit card.
Did this straight away. HSBC said no money had been taken from my account.

They sent me a card within five days.

Hope you get this sorted

Good 🤞

If its been tampered with, the money could have been dispensed but not issued. That may be the hy the balance is fine, however Tesco (or whoever owns the machine) needs to review the security footage. If he gets nowhere he needs to report it to the police who may be interested esp if he's not the only one affected.