So my debit card got eaten by an ATM

[royalfan5]

I think this is going to be very inconvenient for the next week or so. I can't believe technology let me down.

[King Crimson]

weren't you switching banks? if you go to your bank i bet you'll have a new one Monday.

[King Crimson]

it's in the machine. all you need to do is call whoever runs the ATM. i used to leave mine in the bank one and walk off....and then the machine would swallow it. if you hassle the bank people a little in a friendly way, they'd fish it out for me.

[royalfan5]

weren't you switching banks? if you go to your bank i bet you'll have a new one Monday.
Probably, but not until I finish moving and get settled in Omaha. Apparently the bank whose ATM swallowed mine, cuts up the card and mails it to your bank. In any event, my new one is ordered and on the way. I just hate going to the bars without cash in hand because I prefer to pay as I go when I drink. I'll probably just cash in my change to get by until the new one shows up.

[goingoneight]

The ATM at Admiral and Memorial in Tulsa swaller'd mine about a year ago. The dood in the bank shut down the machine and they supposedly cancelled the card since there was no one there to get the card out. The next day I decided I'd check my balance just in case and there was a bunch of little $5-$10 charges at QT later that night on it. I was pizzed at Bank of America needless to say. First of all, apparently some bum off the streets knows more about their ATM than they did, and secondly they put my card cancellation on the back-burner.

They ended up paying the charges after the time my card got stuck in it.

[Frozen Sooner]

As a general rule, branch staff no longer have a key to the ATM. They don't need it-we have another department that services them and an armored car service loads up the cash. The fewer people who have keys, the less headaches we have when someone quits or gets fired.

Also as a general rule, a card gets swallered by an ATM because it has a capture code out for it-either for PIN violations or because the card has been reported lost or stolen. That being the case, even when I had a key, I was pretty leery of popping the machine open and giving someone the card.

A properly-designed ATM should not spit a captured card back out-they go into a divert bin that doesn't have any way of popping them back out unless you physically open the machine up and dig 'em out.

However, swallowing cards is the reason the majority of new ATMs don't have you feed the card into them.

[Shneeg11]

I saw a thing on tv a year ago about scammers putting a little homemade device on the slot where you put the card in to stop it when the machine spits the card out. It's not visible if you don't know what to look for, and they just walk up and pull it out along with your card, so be careful

[StoopTroup]

Never write your pin number on your card either. :D

[Scott D]

every time an ATM eats a debit card, Frozen Sooner gets a raise ;)

[royalfan5]

As a general rule, branch staff no longer have a key to the ATM. They don't need it-we have another department that services them and an armored car service loads up the cash. The fewer people who have keys, the less headaches we have when someone quits or gets fired.

Also as a general rule, a card gets swallered by an ATM because it has a capture code out for it-either for PIN violations or because the card has been reported lost or stolen. That being the case, even when I had a key, I was pretty leery of popping the machine open and giving someone the card.

A properly-designed ATM should not spit a captured card back out-they go into a divert bin that doesn't have any way of popping them back out unless you physically open the machine up and dig 'em out.

However, swallowing cards is the reason the majority of new ATMs don't have you feed the card into them.
I think what happened in my case is I got distracted by some girls asking for directions when it spit it back out, and then it sucked it back in before I could grab it. I assume the machines suck them back in if they aren't grabbed within in a specific time frame.

[Frozen Sooner]

That they do. Another reason why most ATMs are moving to swipe-only.

[King Crimson]

I assume the machines suck them back in if they aren't grabbed within in a specific time frame.

see that's what happened to me. after they went away from the swipe kind, i'd stick my card in the machine, make a deposit or whatever, walk across the parking lot to the grocery. shop. and then at the check out realize i didn't have my card.