Debit card rejected by two different cash machines
Today I had a friend of mine over and we went to get some fish & chips in the town. I needed to get some cash out too.
In goes the debit card, tap in my PIN, ask for £50 and suddenly my card got spat out with a message "Sorry we are unable to complete this transaction". I tried again but did a balance enquiry instead, but again my card got spat out with the same message.
I said to the lady behind "This one's broken" before crossing the road to another ATM belonging to a different bank. In goes the debit card, tap in my PIN, ask for £50...
This completely different ATM belonging to a completely different bank also spat out my card with a similar message.
I know for a fact that this account had plenty of money, but surprisingly this other ATM also refused to do a balance enquiry with the same message, after spitting out my card like it was laced with Bitrex.
Why did this happen?
In goes the debit card, tap in my PIN, ask for £50 and suddenly my card got spat out with a message "Sorry we are unable to complete this transaction". I tried again but did a balance enquiry instead, but again my card got spat out with the same message.
I said to the lady behind "This one's broken" before crossing the road to another ATM belonging to a different bank. In goes the debit card, tap in my PIN, ask for £50...
This completely different ATM belonging to a completely different bank also spat out my card with a similar message.
I know for a fact that this account had plenty of money, but surprisingly this other ATM also refused to do a balance enquiry with the same message, after spitting out my card like it was laced with Bitrex.
Why did this happen?
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Comments
The banks use a computer program that spots unusual activity, and puts a block on the card - to help protect against theft or fraud.
It happen to me the other week - I had to get £250 out of the cash machine (the highest amount allowed per day on my card) for 3 days in a row - because I couldn't get to an actual bank.
The bank spotted this, and put a block on the card - in case it had been stolen.
I had to take the card and some ID to the bank to get it re-activated.
You may have been able to use other banks machines previously but I've seen other forums suggesting they may have closed that loophole in the last few weeks.
That's only with a cash account, other accounts you can use any cash machine.
I don't know ~ I do know that my old debit card would never work in the Nationwide ATM outside a local supermarket. It just spat it straight out without even a message. So these machines do have their faults.
It was only that machine that my old debit card didn't work in, and the new one does.
http://www.link.co.uk/mn_homepage.html
I phoned Abbey to be told that the network had gone down countrywide.
Didn't think anything more of it since I did have enough money to buy the fish & chips after all. Since then, I used the same card last night (Monday) to buy some food at a supermarket and requested cashback. The card was accepted.
If Abbey said "the network had gone down countrywide", would I have been unable to use said card to pay for stuff in shops?
Unlikely you would have had a problem.A stand in system kicks in that authorises transaction to various limits based on account snapshots and history.
Also ATM network is Link where shops use a seperate system.
I remember being in Next, and handing over my card to pay for the purchases. The lady said it was declined and I insisted she tried it again, as I was sure there was money in the account. Nope, didn't work. I went to the cash machine around the corner and tried to withdraw the amount - not a problem. I printed out a statement and there was more than enough to cover the cost of my items. I went back into the store and told her that I had the cash here, but could she try my card again as there was enough money in it. She tried it again and BINGO! Strange.