Short changed by cash machine

NFH

Dan_Gleebitz wrote: »

The machine/system knows that you have only been paid £270 so a credit of £30 will/should be automatically applied to your account.

Although it is conceivable that the bank or machine might know that it is £30 short, how would it know that the shortfall relates specifically to the OP's withdrawal?

coolesticeking

NFH wrote: »

Although it is conceivable that the bank or machine might know that it is £30 short, how would it know that the shortfall relates specifically to the OP's withdrawal?

Well, it has to debit the account in some shape or form so I guess it either has the card number if it uses that or the bank account number & sort code.

NFH

coolesticeking wrote: »

Well, it has to debit the account in some shape or form so I guess it either has the card number if it uses that or the bank account number & sort code.

Yes, of course it has that information. But it also has that information for all the other withdrawals. When the cash machine owner finds a surplus of cash in the machine compared to the total amount recorded as dispensed on a particular day, how do they know which of the many withdrawals the error occurred with? According to Dan Gleebitz above, they have a means of knowing this. How?

opinions4u

NFH wrote: »

Yes, of course it has that information. But it also has that information for all the other withdrawals. When the cash machine owner finds a surplus of cash in the machine compared to the total amount recorded as dispensed on a particular day, how do they know which of the many withdrawals the error occurred with? According to Dan Gleebitz above, they have a means of knowing this. How?

Some transactions the machine will be able to electronically detect the problem and will either correct the error overnight or, in some cases, immediately.

In other cases the machine's audit log will highlight that "something" happened at the time of the transaction but not correct it. If that coincides with a customer claim, a refund will occur.

In other cases the machine hasn't got a clue that there's a problem. This is where the need to balance it becomes a requirement.

If the ATM has an imbalance and it's considered to fit with a customer claim (and I never experienced more than one claim in a balncing period) then the bank will reimburse.

If the thing balances, the bank then has to make a judgement call on the honesty of the customer. Where an agreement is made to reimburse, some banks will note the customer or account record with details. That way a subsequent unverified claim can be rejected as the statisitical likelihood of an ATM failing to pay out the right cash to the same customer twice (where there is no electronic record of some sort of problem on the machine) is somewhere more remote than the range of odds that would be offered for Stockport County to win the 2015/16 Champions League.

Dan_Gleebitz

NFH wrote: »

Although it is conceivable that the bank or machine might know that it is £30 short, how would it know that the shortfall relates specifically to the OP's withdrawal?

Probably because the machine knows how many notes it has paid out, and it shuts itself down on paying out the last one. So it knows that only £270 has been paid out on the last transaction which was the OP's.

A machine knows how many notes are issued and there value. But only when filled with notes that are in the correct dispensers. Sometimes human error occurs where the £20 notes are put in the £10 side, and you could get £600 instead of £300 but the machine has counted 30 notes out and thinks you have had £300.
But they will track you down for the other £300.
Dan.

jonesMUFCforever

Your bank according to new banking code should credit your account by £30 as soon as you explain what has happened.
It is up to them to liaise with LTSB about the discrepancy.
If the machine is found to have balanced correctly they then MAY come back to reclaim the money.

shown73

All useful info, thanks very much. So, at 09:00 precisely, into HSBC, reading the riot act! I'll post the result, if any. Could happen to anyone. Don't usually use ATM's for more than shopping money, and I think this just reinforces that strategy.

opinions4u

shown73 wrote: »

All useful info, thanks very much. So, at 09:00 precisely, into HSBC, reading the riot act!

I'd suggest politely explaining to them what has happened, where and when, and taking it from there is a fairer approach.

Don't usually use ATM's for more than shopping money, and I think this just reinforces that strategy.

ATMs are more likely to give you the correct cash than a bank cashier, a supermarket checkout operator giving cashback or a barman giving you change.

They are extraordinarily reliable machines I'd guess thay are probably 99.99% accurate.

lucylucky

shown73 wrote: »

All useful info, thanks very much. So, at 09:00 precisely, into HSBC, reading the riot act! I'll post the result, if any. Could happen to anyone. Don't usually use ATM's for more than shopping money, and I think this just reinforces that strategy.

Do they not have a phone number you can ring - now?

jonesMUFCforever

lucylucky wrote: »

Do they not have a phone number you can ring - now?

Quicker to do it in branch - any phone enquiry will mean the form that you sign in the bank being posted to you and any refund will have to wait until they process it after you send it back.