# At what moment do ATM machines stop delivering money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854 "2011-05-31T14:50:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/41 "2011-06-02T16:15:40Z")
This was quite a few years ago so I don’t remember exact details, but I have had a TD Canada Trust ATM only spit out part of what I asked for. As I recall it made noises like it was counting out bills for much longer than usual (as though it was trying but failing to pick up bills), spat out what it could and then shut down. It showed up on my statement as a debit of the original amount followed by a “correction” crediting me back what it was unable to give me. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/42 "2011-06-02T19:25:24Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Something I’ve noticed: in both Australia and Singapore, the machines ask for your PIN as soon as you insert your card. However, in Australia, they only verify the PIN after you tell it how much you want, so it will accept any PIN the first time around. In Singapore, they check the PIN immediately. I can’t speak to Singapore, but in Australia it will vary by bank and vary by the type/manufacturer of the ATM as to what point in the transaction your PIN is actually verified. The idea of only checking once you’ve typed in your full request, is more prevalent in stand alone ATM’s, which use what amounts to a mobile phone to connect to the banking system to check that you request is acceptable, so it hits PIN, balance, etc all at once. The onsite ATM’s which are typically hardwired into the bracnh communications systems are more likely (but not guaranteed) to check as you go. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/43 "2011-06-03T07:03:36Z")
Hmm my friend was trying his PIN at a Commonwealth Bank ATM, outside the bank, and it only verified when he tried to withdraw money (accepted wrong PIN at first). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/44 "2011-06-03T09:14:34Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > SNIP > > - And goddamn it, these were always in the worst locations. The back of a convenience store in front of the freezers in a bad neighborhood where you’d be on your knees putting in $20k in cash with morons trying to lean over you to grab shit; one that broke down a lot in the middle of a skyway where you’re on your knees with tons of people walking right past you and half stepping over you because it was just around a turn; one in a busy downtown bar. It’s not a coincidence; the rich neighborhoods with low crime and customers the banks want to keep happy get the shiny, new ATMs. I feel you with regards to getting freaked-out working on ATMs. During a software roll-out, one of my company’s tech support guys got drafted to do reloads on-site at dozens of ATMs in the Bronx. (Usually this was done by local techs, but our manpower was wholly exhausted.) He completed the entire project, unarmed and escorted. He had been wholly unaware that my employer would gladly have paid for armed guards for pretty much all of these sites, had he requested it. His anxiety level went down dramatically once he was back at HQ taking phone calls again. Capitaine Zombie, thanks for the shout-out. As far as whether or not ATMs validate your PIN before or after you enter your request, that is completely variable depending on both your bank and the specific ATM in question. I’ll note that at ATMs where the data connection to the network is via phone line, checking your PIN prior to the transaction being keyed would frequently cost more in terms of long-distance bills or 800# surcharges than the alternative. Banks are nothing if not cost-conscious, and so are the small independent companies that operate non-bank ATMs. ---
**Author:** ![Natchomomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Natchomomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Natchomomma)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/45 "2015-10-29T02:54:24Z")
Money in stored in cassettes which have a sensor that will notify the bank when the money is getting low. The ATM will dispense cash until the cassette is empty. Atms can be setup to dispense different denominations depending on what the bank wants. Some ATMS have only 20 dollar bills, some have 20s and 10s etc. if an ATM says it can’t give you money it may have a mechanical problem or just not have any more cash. If you don’t have enough money in your account it usually will tell you that you don’t have enough in your account. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/46 "2015-10-29T04:30:18Z")
(aside) Why do people complain about “ATM machine” being redundant? “ATM” is redundant, too. What, you were expecting an automated teller person? ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/47 "2015-10-29T04:42:43Z")
The ones at the gas stations would process all transactions until the machine could no longer dispense money. If there was $40 dollars in the machine, and I requested $100, it would dispense $40, and the receipt would say something like “amount requested $100, amount dispensed $40, amount withdrawn from bank $40”. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/48 "2015-10-29T05:03:43Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > (aside) > Why do people complain about “ATM machine” being redundant? “ATM” is redundant, too. What, you were expecting an automated teller person? They are named “Automated Teller Machine” - it is a proper name, and not, all these years later, subject to trivial nit-picking. Repeating a word, however, has never been grandfathered into the realm of proper speech. Now, excuse me while I enter my PIN number into the ATM machine. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/49 "2015-10-29T06:57:41Z")
It’s kind of funny how it sounds the money detection works. Instead of the machine knowing precisely how many bills are in each of it’s cassettes and subtracting with each transaction, it apparently self counts out bills from cassettes to find out if it has enough money or not. The mental image of it the machine checking it’s own pockets and finding nothing but lint is quite funny. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/50 "2015-10-29T11:59:35Z")
> [@Mudshark](#): > > If there was $40 dollars in the machine, and I requested $100, it would dispense $40, and the receipt would say something like “amount requested $100, amount dispensed $40, amount withdrawn from bank $40”. That seems inappropriate. The machines I’ve used here post the maximum cash disbursal when they can’t fulfill, and make it your turn. What if your bank charges a $5 transaction fee and you’d rather look for a mchine that can give you the full $100 ? ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/51 "2015-10-29T13:14:42Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#): > > Like, I try to withdraw $200, but there’s only $80 left in the ATM, so I’d get a “unable to do this” type message. But then I try again and this time I only request $60, so it spits it out. I have had exactly this experience. I recognized the “Unable to process this transaction at this time” as the ATM’s way of saying it didn’t have enough money. I reduced the amount I was asking for, and it worked. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/52 "2015-10-29T13:44:05Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > It’s kind of funny how it sounds the money detection works. Instead of the machine knowing precisely how many bills are in each of it’s cassettes and subtracting with each transaction, it apparently self counts out bills from cassettes to find out if it has enough money or not. Well, I think that’s not exactly how it has been described. More like this: The machine was told it has exactly 200 $20 bills, but it doesn’t know what condition those bills are in. Every time it grabs a bill it double checks itself. “I need a $20. I grabbed a $20. Is this a $20?” Sometimes the bills it grabbed fail that last test, and get put aside. So when somebody comes up to withdraw $200, and it knows it has $240 left, it starts counting bills out. “That’s a $20. That’s a $20. That’s a $20. Don’t know what that is. That’s a $20. That’s a $20. That’s a $20. Don’t know what that is. That’s a $20. That’s a $20. That’s a $20. Don’t know what that is. . Oops, I don’t have enough.” Apparently depending on what model of machine it is it might at that point: give the customer the $180 it counted out and a receipt showing they only got $180, give the customer nothing and put the $180 back so it can give it to other customers, or give the customer nothing and dump the $180 in with the “Don’t know what this is” bills. Options 1 and 3 are followed by putting up a “This window closed” sign and go on break because it is now out of money. ---
**Author:** ![lucid-nonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2acd7d/32.png) [@lucid-nonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucid-nonsense)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/53 "2015-10-29T16:51:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > (aside) > Why do people complain about “ATM machine” being redundant? “ATM” is redundant, too. What, you were expecting an automated teller person? A machine can be non-automatic, like say a typewriter or a car. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/54 "2015-10-29T18:42:16Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > They are named “Automated Teller Machine” - it is a proper name, and not, all these years later, subject to trivial nit-picking. Nothing is immune to trivial nit-picking. But nothing great should be expected from any form of recreational pedantry, in the end. > [@](#): > > Repeating a word, however, has never been grandfathered into the realm of proper speech. > > Now, excuse me while I enter my PIN number into the ATM machine. Is this a new one with an LCD display, or an old-style CRT tube? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/55 "2015-10-29T20:08:11Z")
I’ve never had a machine give me less money than I asked for. Quite often I’ve seen a message on the screen saying “This machine is unable to dispense cash” but it is still in operation for other services, such as checking balances. ATMs in the UK usually dispense both £10 and £20 notes. It’s quite common for the £10 notes to run out, in which case you get a message telling you that you can only request an amount in multiples of £20. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/56 "2015-10-29T21:31:18Z")
This reminds me how impressed I was this year in France that you had options for the denominations of the bills it would spit out. - _We can put a man on the moon but we can’t even…_ \* ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/57 "2015-10-29T23:10:18Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Repeating a word, however, has never been grandfathered into the realm of proper speech. Absolutely, totally, completely wrong! This is exactly how the English language works, as shown in the many other examples that people have given here. The only people who say this is wrong are the kind of people up with whom we should not put! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/58 "2015-10-30T00:04:48Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > It’s kind of funny how it sounds the money detection works. Instead of the machine knowing precisely how many bills are in each of it’s cassettes and subtracting with each transaction, it apparently self counts out bills from cassettes to find out if it has enough money or not. > > The mental image of it the machine checking it’s own pockets and finding nothing but lint is quite funny. I worked in the industry at one point. The answer is complicated, but basically if the machine is either old and not working perfectly or if the money is bad or improperly loaded the machine can experience jams. In certain cases, the machine has to clear a jam and consider the jammed funds unusable. It is also not always sure how much was in the jam, as sometimes two bills will come out when the machine was trying to pull one at a time. If the bank, bank network and whoever puts the money in the machine all did their jobs, the machine knows how much money it SHOULD have left if it hasn’t had any jams. Whether or not the machine tries to dispense for you when it thinks it only has half of your requested amount is configurable by the bank’s network. Some banks or ATM operators will do that, some won’t. The part that sucks is if you request $100, it debits your account for $100. If it can only dispense $60, sure it refunds the $40 but you may not have ACCESS to those $40 for a day or 3. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/59 "2015-10-30T22:18:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > (aside) > Why do people complain about “ATM machine” being redundant? “ATM” is redundant, too. What, you were expecting an automated teller person? No but you could have a “manual teller machine”… teller stands there and presses “20” and its spits out a 20… I have had ATM tell me “please choose a number that is a multiple of $20”. then it spits out $20’s… suggesting it only had $20’s left… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854/60 "2015-10-30T23:08:37Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > No but you could have a “manual teller machine”… > > \> teller stands there and presses “20” and its spits out a 20… This company makes some machines that are pretty close to that. It checks the teller’s PIN number and then dumps money, doesn’t care about any networks, and the computer in it is pretty dumb. > **[Home](https://www.glory-global.com/en-us/)** > > $name > [@Isilder](#): > > I have had ATM tell me “please choose a number that is a multiple of $20”. > then it spits out $20’s… suggesting it only had $20’s left… Could have been, could also have only ever been stocked with 20s, and was trying to avoid people who got frustrated when they asked for $90 and it couldn’t oblige. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-moment-do-atm-machines-stop-delivering-money/583854.md?page=4)