Some years back, our credit union was changing from an account-type card to a debit card, so the cards no longer carried the checking account number on it. So they sent me the new card and a new PIN. I used it to get $20 one morning - worked fine. A few days later, I tried to take out another $20, and it wouldn’t work. I called the credit union and asked about it, and they said the wrong cards were sent and they wouldn’t work so just throw them out. I told the woman that I’d withdrawn $20 with it, and she said that was impossible.
My account was never debited for that $20, and in a few days, I got the correct card. So despite trying to do the right thing, I still came out $20 ahead. Considering all the loans that credit union has issued us, they’ve gotten that $20 back many times over.
And to answer the question, yes I always check what I get, even though it’s rarely more than $20. I’d rather use my debit card than cash.
Mistakes happen all the time so count your money folks. Banks have whole departments dedicated to this exact problem. The one I worked at called it “Misdispense”.
Is it “half” a bill? As long as it’s more than half, torn currency is redeemable for a new, whole bill.
One time an ATM failed to spit out any green, but debited my account. The bank made good on it though, but not sure how they determined I wasn’t lying. Another time, at a walk-in ATM, the entire machine retracted after I inserted my card. I was pretty poor at the time, but sheesh. Turned out they were filling the machine.
Evil is knowing that it’s actually an old adult movie title. Really evil is knowing that there were four of them. Pure evil is knowing that the fourth one is the best of the series.
I had always heard that as long as three of the four corners are intact- and serial numbers- it’s valid legal tender. This bill was split exactly down the middle, like someone had purposely folded and refolded it and carefully ripped it exactly in half. Besides, why would a bank agree to exchange it for a full bill if I could do that to every $20 bill and essentially double my money?
from the US Dept of Treasury Website (Paraphrased) the Bureau of Engraving and Printing “…decide the redemption value of torn or otherwise unfit currency by measuring the portions of the notes submitted. Generally, they reimburse the full face value if clearly more than one-half of the original note remains. Currency fragments measuring less than one-half are not redeemable”
So to answer your question about doubling your money… first of all it’s my understanding that a lot of banks won’t redeem the damaged currency, especially if it’s that close. That leave your next best option as going to the B of E & P, and I’m thinking they may be wise to your game.
The ATM is a computer, it has a total of what it thinks it dispensed and if that doesn’t coincide with the amount of money physically in there, then that would back up your claim. Unless it shorted you $20 and gave somebody else $20 extra, then it would be a wash and they’d just have to take it on faith to keep you as a customer.
Knowing machines, I’m sure the ATMs making mistakes is not that uncommon, so unless you make a habit of it they should believe you.
I had a ATM machine give me a $10 instead of a $20. I went into the bank to complain, and after being assured that the machine can only dispense $20 and I must be full of it, in walked my grandfather, who had, well lets just say a buttload of money in that bank. Once they realized this they quickly gave me my $10. But since that, I closed my account with that bank and rarely use ATM machines.
I was so frakking confused when I started working at, of all places, the Renaissance Faire in Wisconsin, where they have all sorts of cutesy names for shit (“Why yes, M’lady, we take MasterCard and LadyVisa and New World Express! That will be 30 pounds 21 pence with the Lord Mayor’s taxxe!”) and patrons kept asking me where the “time machine” was!
Does anybody still call them “Instant Tellers”? I don’t know whether any Canadian banks still officially call them that, and whether it is/was specific to a particular bank, but I’m still more used to that name than I am to ATM (or ATM machine for people that aren’t anal about what letters in abbreviations are short for )
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