Kevin's Watch

Well....here's the situation....I am at an ATM/MAC/cash machine withdrawing money.
Now, 99.99% of the machines I use require a simple swipe of my card, immediately after which I return my card to my wallet.

The machine I am using for this transaction is the .01% that ingests the card at the beginning of the transaction, and regurgitates it at the end.

SO......I withdraw my money, count it, put it in my wallet, grab my receipt and walk away.

Can you guess what I didn't grab?

That's right....my card. By the time I realized it, the machine had re-swallowed my card, ne'er to be seen again.

Now I am left waiting 7-10 business days for my new card to arrive...and annoyed at myself for my absentmindedness.

Here's the topic: Just because something is a habit doesn't mean one can let oneself stop concentrating on the task at hand. Discuss.

That hppened to a freind of mine, only he left the card INSIDE the machine; with his account still open.

As you can well imagine; the next person to use the machine, drained his account.

God, I feel so old school. I still don't use an debit card. My paycheck is not direct deposited, and I am so used to cashing it at the bank that I've never bothered getting a card.

I have heard of such horror stories from friends who depend on debit cards. If lost or stolen, they are screwed until the new one arrives.

Wow, 7-10 days? If I lose my debit card, (and it has happened to me once), I get a new one the same day.

--A

Now *there's* a reason to move to S. Africa! We don't even get our driver's licenses same day any more...

I've left my debit card in the machine a few times, and haven't noticed it was missing until days later. I've been fortunate, in that the teller accepted my ID and gave it back to me when I went back to ask.

I have no excuses for leaving it in the machine though. Just plain old absent-mindedness.

Brain farts happen.

aliantha wrote:Now *there's* a reason to move to S. Africa! We don't even get our driver's licenses same day any more...

Uh, yeah...don't mention drivers licenses. You don't get those on the same day. Or in the same month. 6 weeks to renew it. Trying to actually get it in the first place is a different story...6 months if you're lucky. (The licensing department here is one of the most inefficient and corrupt departments in the government. Second probably only to Home Affairs. (ID's, Passports, stuff like that.)

--A

I found a card in an ATM machine once.
She left with her account wide open.
Could have robbed her blind.
I just returned the card to the nearby bank office.
(I did look to see how much we were talking about though.... )

I still haven't received my new card. Good thing I keep a stash of cash for emergencies.
HLT...that was definitely the right thing to do. She was lucky it was someone like you who used the machine next.
AV...the issue is that I maintain an account out-of-state, so I can't just go into the branch to get a new one. I am sure it wouldn't be the same day, though.
Now...if I can only absentmindedly win the lottery......

AV...the issue is that I maintain an account out-of-state, so I can't just go into the branch to get a new one.

You and your "united" states.

--A