ATM did not dispense cash - but bank account debited

Swwils

Hello all,

This situation is turning into a nightmare for me and my spouse. She has a Thai bank account (Visa card) and today she tried to withdraw £800 from an ATM inside a lloyds branch in the UK from her thai account. (A transaction she has done many times before)

The ATM processed the transaction and she heard the draws moving but the machine never dispensed the cash and the screen quickly flashed "transaction cancelled".

She then proceeded to try the transaction again with the same result. Moments after checking on-line she could see that her bank account had been debited the £1600. But obviously the machine had not dispensed any cash.

Lloyds staff were unhelpful and suggested that she contact her bank; they did not check the machine at the time for fault as far as I am aware.

Her Thai bank sets her daily ATM limit to 3x£800 and she has used this ATM before for similar amounts.

Anyway, we have contacted her bank and they say the process will take 71 working days to be "resolved". I have contacted the police and they advised me to go and view the CCTV footage and ask for the machines log but they cannot do anything officially until it is confirmed to be a theft/fraud.

I am just wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this, what else I can possibly do and what she should expect as the outcome.

Hopefully my trip to the branch tomorrow will be more fruitful than my spouses experience this afternoon.

Thanks in advance!

Own_My_Own

I have never heard of an ATM letting you withdraw £800 per transaction.

You will need the machine log. They should have closed it down straight away.

Swwils

The limit is set by the Thai bank; she has taken out a similar sum from the same machine before.

Noone at the banked asked for the amount of money that the ATM owed; but they did say that they would check the machine. I was not there to ensure this happened and she was a little bit distraught at what was happening.

She did inform 2 separate staff but they said they were powerless as it was an international bank and that only they should be contacted.

I've then been told about this and the branch was closed by the time I had all the facts.

dalesrider

Swwils wrote: »

Lloyds staff were unhelpful and suggested that she contact her bank; they did not check the machine at the time for fault as far as I am aware.

Her Thai bank sets her daily ATM limit to 3x£800 and she has used this ATM before for similar amounts.

Anyway, we have contacted her bank and they say the process will take 71 working days to be "resolved". I have contacted the police and they advised me to go and view the CCTV footage and ask for the machines log but they cannot do anything officially until it is confirmed to be a theft/fraud.

I am just wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this, what else I can possibly do and what she should expect as the outcome.

Hopefully my trip to the branch tomorrow will be more fruitful than my spouses experience this afternoon.

Thanks in advance!

You are wasting your time going to the branch. They will not deal with it.
Police advice is rubbish. Lloyds will not let you view the log. That has confidental data on it that you have no right to view. Also CCTV. Again as a member of the public and also not the person effected. I would seriously doubt they would let you view it. That is even if Lloyds have CCTV in that area.
If viewed its not going to assist your case, as that is based on ATM log.
But I guess would give you piece of mind.

I would these disputes on a daily basis. Its very common.

TBH, i would never request £800 out of a ATM. Due to something like this happening.
There is a reason most uk cards have a £300 limit.

If it was a Uk bank then you would be looking at 28 days for the invistigation to resolved.
But here is something that may resolve it quicker.
Certainly if a UK visa card is used oversea's and cash not taken. There is a chargeback right (90) straight away. This credits the account in days. Then the atm owners have 60 days to contest this chargeback.
I can't be 100% certain. But would expect that the reverse is also true.

So she needs to contact her bank back and get them to start the process for her.
There is not other way of resolving it.
Lloyds will do nothing as neither you or her are their customers and you could be anyone trying to get cash out of them. It is not them being unhelpful. It is the process that needs to be followed.

But why given that it never gave the cash 1st time did she do exactly the same at the same atm....
Sounds to me like the atm did not have enough cash.
I would advise in future to take smaller amounts on a more regular basis. Or get her a UK account.

Swwils

Thanks for the information dalesrider, the majority of the points I have brought up with her before.

I know I am clutching at straws with access to the machine log; but I will take her along with me and hope for the best.

Her bank has already been informed and I will look into chargeback.

visidigi

Odd how lloyds can't help.

When a Cash Machine has cash that isn't taken from the slot and is re-swallowed' its credited back to the account it was being taken from and is applied back in a few days.

If the machine shows the money hasn't been dispensed then surely it should be returned to the account automatically?

CoolHotCold

Odd's are that the machine didn't have the cash or didn't process it. So totalling the cash point will result in 0 discrepencies. You said it yourself, it came up transaction canceled.

Think it through logically, the ATM isn't going to dispense cash if you don't have enough money in your bank, so the process between the ATM and the bank goes something like this


Card In Machine --> Pin Entered --> Amount Selected --> ATM sends authorisation to Thai bank, Thai bank says ok and deducts £800 from account --> ATM receives this authorisation, tries to proceed with transaction but fails and flashes Transaction Canceled --> ATM sends transaction canceled message to Thai Bank --> Thai Bank slow --> Panic ensures.

System

It annoys me on things like this when people involve the police. The bank are investigating and the police are busy enough. They shouldn't be involved in consumer rights issues like this. I wonder how many police calls a day are a waste of their time 30%?

dalesrider

visidigi wrote: »

Odd how lloyds can't help.

When a Cash Machine has cash that isn't taken from the slot and is re-swallowed' its credited back to the account it was being taken from and is applied back in a few days.

If the machine shows the money hasn't been dispensed then surely it should be returned to the account automatically?

They are not a Lloyds customer.

For all Lloyds know, that cash may not be showing as debiting the customer. So customer gets cash for free....
That is why there is a dispute process. That your own bank starts and they ask the atm owner to check the atm.

Also given this is a oversea's bank and I'm going to have to assume :rotfl: that they work in the same way in terms of oversea's atm trans, that a UK bank deals with oversea's atms.

So this may take a couple of days to actually show on the OP's account as a debit.
So while it will be showing as a authorisation. It may never debit.

NewC

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:Exactly Same thing happend to me! I m debited 800*3 by the Lloyds tsb on my foreign card while nothing dispensed !!!!!!! Today

Handsome90

The ATM owner will probably count the money inside the ATM and check whether they tally or not. If they tally, I'm afraid you'll have a hard time convincing the bank that your wife didn't get the cash. Let's just hope the machine don't tally.

You should be able to get a copy of the CCTV using subject access request (it might cost you £10 for the data).

Guardian published an article where a London man's card was swallowed by the machine and the money debited from his account. Here is the link http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/07/atm-swallows-500-bank-refuses-investigate