I noticed something recently about my bank, Chevy Chase in suburban Maryland.
There are no drive-through tellers.
I rarely use the drive-through (obviously). If there’s an ATM, I’m all over it. I go inside the bank to make major withdrawals.
On Monday I needed to withdraw enough cash for the rent, but I couldn’t get to the bank until after their regular lobby hours (3:30? hmph). So I figured that the drive-through was a viable option, since it’s open at least a little later than the lobby.
But Chevy Chase no longer has a drive through. What they have are two drive-up ATMs. This is in addition to the regular ATM.
Now, I ask you. What’s the point of getting rid of the drive-throughs? Are banks that desparate to save money that they’ll drop in ATMs instead? It’d be one thing if there weren’t any ATMs and the branch decided to put one in, but they’re inexplicibly adding two when there’s already one. Overkill, if you ask me.
Now, my first thought was, “Okay, they got rid of the drive-throughs, but maybe that means the ATMs aren’t as limited in what you can do at them.” For example, one limitation has always been the amount one can withdraw from an ATM.
So I decide to try to get the whole amount out, but a message comes up explaining that the limit is $600. Okay, not a problem, not the end of the world. It then asks me if I want to do an additional transaction. Sure do, I say, then enter OK.
The machine spits out $180.
Hm, say I. Not nearly enough. Weird. I’ll try again. So I do, and I manage to squeeze another $100 out of the machine.
But when I try a third time, another, more ominous message comes up, stating that I’ve reached my limit. No soup for me!
Wha? Huh? But…
I figured that the machine noted that I was trying time and time again to get cash and figured I was a thief. It then displayed the bogus “limit” message.
(Which is another thing - what’s the limit? The machine specifically said $600 the first time I tried, but I’ve never gotten anything approaching that. Again, weird.)
The next day, I go to a whole 'nother bank. At this point, I need to scrape up $520, and since the machine had indicated that $600 was the limit, I figure I can get it in one swell foop.
Oops, can’t. I do manage to squeeze another $200 from it. From two different ATMs. Man, sure is tough to get your own money!
I finally take off work (yesterday) and run over to the bank to get the rest out.
Now, for you banking people out there:
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What’s the daily limit for ATM withdrawals? And is it a daily limit or a 24-hour limit?
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Why would a bank get rid of the drive-through tellers? Just to save money?
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If the machine gets the impression that there’s odd activity on your account (e.g., several attempts at withdrawing largeish sums of cash), shouldn’t it display a message different from “you’ve reached your limit,” if indeed no limit has been reached?
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If an ATM is running low on cash, does it only dispense low amounts at a time, e.g. $20 or $40, so that more customers get something instead of many getting nothing?
This whole incident really burned my britches. It was extremely inconvenient to get my own money out. Hmph!