How to deal with faulty ATMs

Lost cash at faulty ATMs

Cash is king no more. The pandemic has sped up the move to a cashless economy. But some of us still like to keep cash in our wallets for a handful of purchases: the local café that refuses to go contactless, second-hand buys on Gumtree, tradie visits… Which means we still need to pay the occasional visit to the automatic teller machine.

ATMs can make some people a bit anxious. When you withdraw cash, you might worry that the ATM won’t dispense the amount you asked for – or that it’ll close its little electronic gate before you’ve had a chance to grab the notes. Those things do happen to some unlucky consumers and more often than you’d think. It’s a stressful scenario: your bank account says you withdrew money, but the cash isn’t in your hands.

There’s a process for a refund from the ATM

First check which ATM you used. If the ATM is from the same bank that issued your ATM card, just contact your bank or make a complaint to them.

The situation is trickier if the faulty ATM isn’t operated by your bank. Apart from the risk of extra fees for using some ATMs, using a different ATM might make it harder to get your money back if something goes wrong – because you don’t have the same relationship with the ATM operator that you have with your own bank.

Thankfully, there’s a process to make things a bit easier for consumers. It works like this:

1. A consumer has a bad experience with an ATM that’s not operated by the consumer’s own bank.
2. The consumer contacts their own bank.
3. The consumer’s bank then contacts the ATM operator to investigate what happened. The investigation usually happens within 21 days.
4. If the investigation shows that something went wrong, the consumer’s bank should refund the consumer.
5. The consumer’s bank can then chase up the ATM operator to cover the refund.

This process makes sense, because your bank is in a much better position than you to find out what happened and to ask the operator of a broken ATM to pay up.

Talk to your bank, not the ATM operator

The first step is to contact your bank and tell them about your experience with the ATM. Make sure you have details about the ATM, like its location and branding. Remember, you should contact your own bank first, even if the ATM is operated by a different bank.

If a consumer isn’t happy with their bank’s investigation into the ATM, they can make a complaint to the bank. If the bank still can’t provide a resolution, the consumer can escalate the complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. AFCA will make a decision based on the specific circumstances and the information available about the ATM. Sometimes AFCA decides the consumer should get some money back, sometimes it doesn’t.

If you’ve had a bad experience with a faulty ATM, the starting point is to tell your story in a way that will get heard by your bank. Ajust offers a free and easy way to explain what happened with a dodgy ATM and gives you the best chance of getting your lost money back.