NatWest - ATM

mioliere

I am trying to reclaim money owed to my mum by Nat West. About eighteen months ago she needed to withdraw £500 but, by the time she got to the bank branch, it had closed so she tried the ATM. She doesn't do this often so was unaware that there is a maximum amount you can withdraw this way. She withdrew £300 and then put her card in again thinking she could make another withdrawal but the screen told her this was not possible.

It wasn't until her statement came that she saw that that transaction had been recorded as having paid out £500. She knows she only had £300 and immediately went into the branch to query it. The bank was adamant that she must have had £500 because 'it says so on the statement' despite the fact that there is a maximum and she just would not have been able to take any more out. My mum has only just told me this and I said I would ask you lovely people for your advice. I really want to get it back for her plus, of course, interest for the last eighteen months.

I hope someone can help.

Edinburghlass_2

As this is a bank error and not a charges problem I'll pop this thread into the Budgeting and Current Account Board.

mioliere

Thank you Edinburghlass - I'm sorry I didn't put it on the right Board!

jamalfatty

I would imagine that if it was 18 months ago your chances arent too good. However the bank will know each day how much money went into the cash machine to stock it up, and how much was withdrawn.
All they will need to do is check these figures for that day and should have your answer in no time.

amandathepanda

Does her card let her take out £500 per day, the majority of cards are limited to £250 per day?

Tori_Bellatrix

amandathepanda wrote: »

Does her card let her take out £500 per day, the majority of cards are limited to £250 per day?

Some cards allow you to take out more ... My Citi debit card allows you to withdraw £500 per day ...

PBA

She needs to raise an ATM dispute with the bank. They will be able to check the records of the machine to see how much was dispensed and if the machine had a cash difference when it was next refilled.

jonesMUFCforever

I think that a dispute from 18 months ago is a non starter.
Please don't flame me just my opinion.
Unless the mother is a very good customer who is worth keeping I really don't hold out much hope.
Why has it taken this long to investigate?

mioliere

Her card lets her take out £300 maximum. The reason it has taken so long to investigate is that she felt she couldn't get anywhere with the staff at the branch and just gave up. I only found out the other day that this had happened. I've asked her for her statement and I will at least have a go and try to get the £200 back - it's a lot of money! Thanks to you all for your advice. Will let you know how we get on.

MarkyMarkD

Sorry for sounding cynical, but the chances of this happening are virtually NIL.

When you withdraw money from an ATM, the ATM checks with your bank how much you can withdraw, debits your account with the charge, and then gives you the amount you have requested, if it's permitted to by your bank. If it then fails to dispense that requested amount, it sometimes credits money back to your account - this happened to me recently when I requested £50, but the machine could only give me £10 'cos it had run out of money. My statement showed a debit of £50 and a credit of £40.

There's nowhere in the process that I can see a different amount than you asked for being actually debited to your bank account.

The most common mistakes which do happen are where the correct amount is debited (i.e. the amount requested) but less is dispensed - but that's a different sort of error.

jonesMUFCforever

I have to agree with Mark.
If the limit you can take out in a day is £300 then there is no way it will let you take out £500.
If she had pressed the button for £500 in error (or other amount if there was no specific £500 button) the machine would have declined the transaction.

Going back to my original post another point is that the bank may no longer have the 'roll' from the machine showing the day's transactions - as branches have less and less staff most filing has been cut back as well. This may well have been sent off in the security waste to be burned.