Has an ATM ever given you the wrong amount?

14 years ago I used one of those mini off-brand ATMs in a local pharmacy (CVS). I requested $60 and it gave me nothing. It took about 4 weeks and many phone calls, but my bank refunded me the $60. I have no idea what they did to research this.

That was what I was going to say. I have seen and read of errors where no cash was dispensed, but that is all.

Yes, at a Wachovia Bank (before they changed names) in Atlanta.

I took out $200 but the machine only dispensed $180 – somehow it counted the $20 bills wrong. They were open at that time and I immediately went in with the receipt. They checked the machine, took a report, etc.

The next day there was a $20 deposit in my account; I figured that they did their audit and decided I was right.,

Only during the many times when it refused to recognize my pin number.

No, an ATM ha never given me the incorrect amount of cash.

Those of you who have tried to make a withdraw but nothing happened, you may have been victims of an old scam specific to ATMs that had little plastic slots on the top and bottom that retracted when money was dispensed. People would glue the slots together, so the money is actually dispensed – but behind the slots so it looks like nothing happened but some whirring. The person trying to use the ATM walks away puzzled, and the thief comes back later, unseals the glue, and makes out like a bandit. This is why ATMs are no longer constructed with retractable slots.

It has not happened to me, but it did happen to one of my customers. He used our ATM and then came into the branch. It gave him an extra $90! He knew it wasn’t his and didn’t want to keep it. We checked the ATM from top to bottom physically, as well as looking at transaction records. The customer was only debited for the amount he was supposed to get, and no one ever called to say that they had left their money behind. Nor were there any $90 transactions. Nothing was out of balance anywhere in the system. Neither the ATM or Accounting departments could figure out what happened. Nor could anyone else. That was in February of 1997. I left the branch and went to the training department in May of 1998 and we still had not been told what to do with the money. I assume it was eventually written off to teller overages, but I never did hear.

I have never had an ATM give me an incorrect amount of money. But banks generally keep account to the penny so while @elbanditoroso story doesn’t surprise me, @tedibear‘s kind of does; that the bank couldn’t account for the $90 anywhere.

And I don’t know how, exactly, ATMs can be so accurate, particularly because when I get one of those really fresh batches of twenties out of one, I always have to separate and rough them up a little bit to make sure that I don’t inadvertently hand over two twenties that are stuck together. I can’t even assure that I won’t do that so I’m not sure how the machine manages it. If no one comes up with the answer I will ask my next door neighbor. Up until about a year ago he worked for Diebold repairing and doing maintenance servicing on their ATMs. I would think he knows how it’s done.

Never.

@lillycoyote I’m guessing that was money someone forgot to take, and so the machine balanced.

@mattbrowne Thanks. Same here.

@ETpro I totally forgot about this question. I was going to ask my neighbor, the ATM service/repair guy about this and forgot. I have a big dry erase board that I put my to do/reminders on, and usually it is reserved for bigger things like: Property taxes due June 23! DMV – tags need to be renewed by July 31, 2012; Get Lizzie spayed!!!! That sort of thing, but I have added: Ask Stosh how ATMs dispense money so accurately, so hopefully I will remember.

@lillycoyote I am breathlessly looking forward to the Stosh Report. :-)