to think that ATMs shouldn't swallow your cash card for no reason...

[PlinkertyPlonk]

...and that 5-7 working days to get a replacement is a ridiculously long time?

Bah humbug.

They don't normally swallow them for no reason?

yanbu, had this with tescos last week. They knew it was faulty as other customers had told them but hadnt got round to putting a notice on it.

muppets

mine arrived in 3 days (nationwide)

The ATM was broken (it was Asda), but like you aqua, there was no sign on the ATM. Everyone (my bank, Asda) was very apologetic but it's not helpful on a Saturday pm when the banks are closed.

Fingers crossed, my card will also arrive in 3 days, although the last time it happened it took the full 7 working days. Why can't the banks courier them out? They have enough of our money!

YANBU - bank's mistake so they should courier it back to you. My bank once mis-keyed the amount of a cheque that I'd written to someone, so took £750 out of my account rather than £150. When I reported it they a) froze my account while they investigated it as potential fraud, and b) cancelled my bank card. It took me 10 working days to get my account unfrozen and my card reissued (over 2 actual weeks), and the card was sent to the branch at which the account was held for me to collect - they wouldn't post it to me for security reasons. As the branch was in Leeds and I lived in London it wasn't very practical to do this, but after some wrangling they "kindly" offered to forward it to a branch closer to me, still to be collected. And they offered me £20, yes 20 whole pounds, as compensation.

Luckily I was living with someone who gave me some cash to tide me over, but if I'd have been on my own I'd have been utterly screwed. Twats the lot of 'em.

Ooh it wasn't in Aberdeen was it? I was at the asda at the beach in Aberdeen yesterday lunchtime and the machine ate a lady's card and she went in to tell customer services about it.

I hope it wasn't the same cash machine and just asda being rubbish about putting a faulty notice on.

Harriet, that's a nightmare! I do feel for people that have no other ready access to funds.

With the last replacement card (my wallet was stolen), they did courier it to me but my God it took a lot of wrangling, not helped by the fact that it was a corporate credit card, that my office finance team is particularly officious and I was in the States! It arrived just as I was leaving the hotel for the flight home (a colleague had to pick up my bill), despite being promised it's arrival 4 days earlier.

I'm just amazed a simple bit of plastic takes so long to replace. I guess there's no incentive for the banks to act more quickly.

No, not Aberdeen, the other end of the country - deepest, darkest Somerset. Maybe they have a problem with their ATMs, it was a fairly new one.

This happened to me last week. ATM retained my card for no reason. I rang the bank and they confirmed there was no reason but that the ATM must be faulty. I am still waiting for a replacement (bastard Lloyds TSB).

I've been 7 days without my card- it is soooooooo inconvenient.

Sympathy!

The power went out once when I was using an ATM (!) just as it was returning my card. I could see the card and even tried to pull it out with tweezers but it wouldn't budge. The screen said there was a fault and it didn't give me my cash either!
Took 2 weeks to get a new one and when I called them that evening, the bank (RBS - shame on you!) gave me the generous offer of charging me £10 to get a maximum of £50 out without using a card as it was a weekend and no banks were open.
I was not amused.

This happened to me on a Friday night quite a few years ago, It must have been before phone banking because I couldn't do anything about it until the monday morning.

I had no idea why the machine had swallowed my card, but when I called the bank, they said that they had had mail returned "not at this address".

Turns out that the postie had delivered it to 4/7 instead of 7/4, and the people at the other address had returned it and this was the banks way of getting my attention to find out where I had moved to. Except I hadn't moved.

I complained to Royal Mail and they sent me a book of first class stamps to say sorry (whoop de do). Good job I had another account with enough to tide me over the weekend....

This is why I keep small stashes of money hidden about the place . I am utterly paranoid about having no cash.