ATM ate my card, bank refused to give it back, then destroyed it!

[tylert14]

I live in Pennsylvania.


You don't have to read the whole story below if you don't want to I'll sum it up real quick right here.

Went to MY bank (National City) and used my non national city debit car to withdraw money. The transaction went fine but I acidently reinserted the card. I hit cancel and it went back to the welcome screen and my card never came back. Called the bank in the morning, yes we have your card, no we cant give it back its policy to not give back non national city cards. Go through the chain of command trying to get someone to get me my card back. Finally make a little progress but when they call the branch my card was allready destroyed.


I NEEDED that card badly. It was the only way I had to get money out of paypal. I have over 1,600 in there of all my spending money and now I have NO access to it. Paypal is slow as molasses at reissuing cards!

Is it legal for them to refuse to give back my card then destroy it??? I would seem to think my card is my personal property. There machine STOLE my card and they REFUSED to give it back!!

I think this is rediculous, and not to mention the way they verbaly handled it on the phone and in person.

I am not one to go after people legaly but this really made me mad, I'm going to do everything I can to press this issue. More so so it doesn't happen to other people, my card is gone.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is the whole story if you want the fine details.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So last night I go through the national city drive trough. Use my paypal debit card and take $400 out. So the transaction goes through, I'm in a hurry so I grab my money and receipt and when I go to grab my card I give it the slightest inward bump before I get my fingers wraped around it and..!!! noo!!! it gets sucked in. Crap. So I push cancel, assuming (assumption is the mother of all ____ ups!) that it will give me my card back... NO it goes back to the welcome screen and my card is no where to be found. I put my Autozone rewards card in it just to see if it would get jammed or anything but now, it went in, asked me what language, then I hit cancel and it gave my AZ card back.

So at this point I'm afraid my card has slipped into a dark abyss in another universe never to be found. So this morning I wake up early and call them as soon as they open. Yes Mr. Titus I have your card right here. Hooray!! right? WRONG! But Mr. Titus I have to destroy it. WHAT!!! Yes Mr. Titus if the card is not our banks card we must destroy it. So I get her manager, who ends up being rude at best. She gives me the same song and dance about destroying the card in the not so polite way. So I ask for her manager, she gets ****y and says "no it won't help, your card must be destroyed"

So I finally get her someone higher up than her. He seems cool, takes my info and firmly says I'll call you back in 5 minutes. So he calls back and says he called auditing and they have to do that. Last resort I call the guy that actually signed me up for my account at another branch. He says it is policy but he can call in a favor. He put me on hold and he came back and sounded real frustrated and said he couldn't help me, it was indeed policy and he couldn't force them to do anything.

I finally got ahold of some higher ups who said they could help me but when they called the bank those SOBs allready cut up the card! I know that manager at the bank hung up with me and immediately shredded it because she knew I would try to go above her head.


So down to the bank I go to pay the lady I talked to a visit. I wait for her for a while and she comes back. We go to her office and get to talking...So yeah apparently the manager told me she DOES make exceptions to the policy ALL THE TIME. But she refused to give paypal a single phone call to just verify my account was in good standing. Her only argument when I asked her if what she did and what the policy said was right was that it was her job to destroy the card because the ATM would have only kept it if it was stolen of the account was frozen. So I asked her how I could steal my own card, she would never directly answer that question. Then I asked her what the big deal would be IF my account was frozen and she gave it back? I would go to another ATM, it would keep it, and I would go through this hastle to get it back... Just for the hell of it right?

Then I told her I want to withdraw my account balance and close my account with them and she smirked and very sarcastically said "I think that would be a good idea"

She handed me a check to take to the teller, I stood up and said "just for future reference if this ever happens again with paypal it would be very easy to pick the phone up and ask if the account was in good standing" She raised her voice as I was walking away and said "I will never call them! This is the end of the conversation!" I was already a few feet out the door with my back turned so I just stopped and turned around and said have a nice day and left. The situation was very bad but I kept my cool, I can't say the same for the manager.

[Zigner]

Your bank didn't do anything wrong.
Just have Paypal transfer the money in to your account (while you're waiting for your new card)

[foxtrotter]

I live in New York State. My story is similar to your ATM experience. My check/debit card was not a member card at the credit union ATM where I received cash. I went to retrieve my card when the bank opened the next morning. I met a clerk at the ATM who told me that their ATM shredded my card. I walked away extremely disappointed because I had planned to fly to CA for a short vacation and I needed my card. I reapplied to my own bank for a new card but it did not arrive in time for my flight.

Upon return from vacation I called my bank because my replacement card had not arrived. I was asked to come into the bank to learn why. There was a delivery problem with the postal service. The card finally arrived over 2 weeks later, however fees had accrued on my bank statement for using non-member ATMS, including the one that ate my card. To sum it up, not having a plastic card while on vacation or even going to buy gas and groceries is really an inconvenience and depressing. To make matters even worse, one day prior to obtaining my replacement card, I revisited the credit union that destroyed my card where I asked to talk with a manager about my card. I heard a different story this time, that the ATM didn't destroy the card, a clerk cut it up. All I can figure from that is that the clerk chose to divert blame by saying the ATM destroyed the card because she didn't want to be the focus of my ire and an unpopular policy by saying she cut it up. That's understandable, however what really irks me is the credit union's policy concerning confiscated cards from their ATMs. A credit union clerk told me that federal regulations apply in the handling of cards taken and kept by any ATM, that they had to be destroyed by law. Well upon hearing this I asked if I could be mailed a copy of this regulation and so I offered my phone number and address. Later that day the same clerk from the credit union called me to inform me that there was nothing to send me by mail. She said: "I just assumed there was federal regulation law about destroying cards, and a check with my management informed me that there isn't." She added further: "It is our policy to verify member card information before returning it to our member and to destroy a non-member card." Well, nevertheless, I asked her to please mail a copy of their confiscated card handling policy. She agreed to do so. I found that the same policy exists at another nearby credit union but not with my own bank. The policy, in my opinion, is very offensive and amounts to destroying a banking competitor's card/property because it states on the back of my card: This card is the property of so and so Bank, N.A. Moreover I think the policy not only destroys cards, it also destroys business. I for one will not ever consider doing business at any bank and credit union with such a policy.

I would like to see the policy challenged by legal authorities and perhaps state attorney generals. The policy should be either rescinded or at the very least modified to the extent that cards confiscated by ATMs be held for a period of 30 days in order to give the owner a chance to retrieve it. Just my 2 cents.

Originally Posted by tylert14

I live in Pennsylvania.


You don't have to read the whole story below if you don't want to I'll sum it up real quick right here.

Went to MY bank (National City) and used my non national city debit car to withdraw money. The transaction went fine but I accidentally reinserted the card. I hit cancel and it went back to the welcome screen and my card never came back. Called the bank in the morning, yes we have your card, no we cant give it back its policy to not give back non national city cards. Go through the chain of command trying to get someone to get me my card back. Finally make a little progress but when they call the branch my card was already destroyed.


I NEEDED that card badly. It was the only way I had to get money out of paypal. I have over 1,600 in there of all my spending money and now I have NO access to it. Paypal is slow as molasses at reissuing cards!

Is it legal for them to refuse to give back my card then destroy it??? I would seem to think my card is my personal property. There machine STOLE my card and they REFUSED to give it back!!

I think this is ridiculous, and not to mention the way they verbally handled it on the phone and in person.

I am not one to go after people legally but this really made me mad, I'm going to do everything I can to press this issue. More so so it doesn't happen to other people, my card is gone.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Below is the whole story if you want the fine details.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So last night I go through the national city drive trough. Use my paypal debit card and take $400 out. So the transaction goes through, I'm in a hurry so I grab my money and receipt and when I go to grab my card I give it the slightest inward bump before I get my fingers wrapped around it and..!!! noo!!! it gets sucked in. Crap. So I push cancel, assuming (assumption is the mother of all ____ ups!) that it will give me my card back... NO it goes back to the welcome screen and my card is no where to be found. I put my Autozone rewards card in it just to see if it would get jammed or anything but now, it went in, asked me what language, then I hit cancel and it gave my AZ card back.

So at this point I'm afraid my card has slipped into a dark abyss in another universe never to be found. So this morning I wake up early and call them as soon as they open. Yes Mr. Titus I have your card right here. Hooray!! right? WRONG! But Mr. Titus I have to destroy it. WHAT!!! Yes Mr. Titus if the card is not our banks card we must destroy it. So I get her manager, who ends up being rude at best. She gives me the same song and dance about destroying the card in the not so polite way. So I ask for her manager, she gets ****y and says "no it won't help, your card must be destroyed"

So I finally get her someone higher up than her. He seems cool, takes my info and firmly says I'll call you back in 5 minutes. So he calls back and says he called auditing and they have to do that. Last resort I call the guy that actually signed me up for my account at another branch. He says it is policy but he can call in a favor. He put me on hold and he came back and sounded real frustrated and said he couldn't help me, it was indeed policy and he couldn't force them to do anything.

I finally got a hold of some higher ups who said they could help me but when they called the bank those SOBs already cut up the card! I know that manager at the bank hung up with me and immediately shredded it because she knew I would try to go above her head.


So down to the bank I go to pay the lady I talked to a visit. I wait for her for a while and she comes back. We go to her office and get to talking...So yeah apparently the manager told me she DOES make exceptions to the policy ALL THE TIME. But she refused to give paypal a single phone call to just verify my account was in good standing. Her only argument when I asked her if what she did and what the policy said was right was that it was her job to destroy the card because the ATM would have only kept it if it was stolen of the account was frozen. So I asked her how I could steal my own card, she would never directly answer that question. Then I asked her what the big deal would be IF my account was frozen and she gave it back? I would go to another ATM, it would keep it, and I would go through this hastle to get it back... Just for the hell of it right?

Then I told her I want to withdraw my account balance and close my account with them and she smirked and very sarcastically said "I think that would be a good idea"

She handed me a check to take to the teller, I stood up and said "just for future reference if this ever happens again with paypal it would be very easy to pick the phone up and ask if the account was in good standing" She raised her voice as I was walking away and said "I will never call them! This is the end of the conversation!" I was already a few feet out the door with my back turned so I just stopped and turned around and said have a nice day and left. The situation was very bad but I kept my cool, I can't say the same for the manager.

[Veronica1228]

First of all, I'd like to ask that you refrain from hijacking someone else's thread. Especially when it is over a year old.

Secondly, there is no reason to be offended by this common bank policy. While it is true that it is not a Fed Reg, in fact there are no Regs that I know of that address any issues regarding the handling of lost or abandoned cards, it is very common for FIs to destory a non-customer card for security reasons. These days most ATM cards are actually Check or Debit cards with the Visa or Mastercard logo on them. FIs destroy non-account holder cards because of the high risk for fraud with these kinds of cards, and the limited means of IDing someone they don't know and have no business dealings with. They do it for the consumer's protection. The bank isn't going to know if you are actually the card holder or if the card was captured because you stole someone else's card and were trying different PIN numbers to get access to someone else's funds. It could also be a case of the account being frozen for some reason as the OP stated above. They have no way of knowing since they have no access to your account.

Again, it is common practice to destroy the card either immediately or within 1 - 2 days after the card is captured. I have worked for a few banks in a couple of different states and this is industry-wide. Good luck getting any Fed Regs changed. It would not be a high priorty for the FDIC or other government agencies with the current Mortgage crisis going on right now, but you go ahead and give it a shot. I doubt your state Banking Commisioner would give two craps about it either. A reasonable person would realize that the policy is in place to protect the consumer and the banks involved and would stop their whining.

Just giving you back your change for your two cents.

[foxtrotter]

First of all I'm new on this website and i,m not that familiar with how to use it, i'm still learning. I did not intentionally "hijack" as you assumed. Moreover since your profile indicates you are in or have been in the banking business I wouldn't expect you to be sympathetic to anyone that has lost a card. I didn't ask for any Federal regulation, I asked that authorities should review the policy and that at least a holding period of 30 days be implemented to give bank card holders a chance to retrieve their cards with proper identification and proof. The policy needs to be reviewed by authorities and maybe even regulated. The tone of your last paragraph and choice of words shows a lack of respect and concern for visitors/members of this forum and probably is typical of the sort of customer service one might expect from you if you have anything to officially do with addressing bank issues in this type of situation.

[Veronica1228]

I know you are new to this website. That's why I explained that you should not have hijacked this thread. If someone doesn't tell you not to do these things, how will you know?

Second, it is not that I am not sympathetic to someone who has lost their card, it is that I understand the very important reasons for the policy of destroying non-customer cards. You should too. Have you ever been a victim of identity theft? I have had many customers have this problem and it is much more difficult and takes a lot longer to straighten out that mess than it is to wait a week or two to get a new ATM card in the mail. By the way, did you know that a lot of banks offer expedited cards sent to you overnight by FedEx for a small additional charge? I always offered that option to my customers when they were in a bind back when I was at a branch office. I even more often than not waived the fee for this service if they were really in a bind such as going on vacation.

Hmmm. I guess you might want to question the customer service of your bank rather than mine since it seems their's is the one that is lacking.

[tholt4]

I would seem to think my card is my personal property

Not necessarliy so - My Visa debit and credit cards state on the back "This card is the property of the bank named on the face and must be returned upon request.

[foxtrotter]

It appears someone else has an issue with their card also. It is not clear who I am replying to because the reply icon appears at the bottom of tholt4's comment which appears under that of Veronica's reply. I agree that the card is the property of the card issuer. Unless there is a common policy and uniform agreement among all ATM locations, I think it's wrong to destroy any card without consulting first the owner/issuer of the card. The owner should then contact the card holder.

A fee is assessed for each use of the card at the ATM where the cash/transaction is made, so the card holder is paying for the use of the ATM and a service. I don't think that service includes destroying property belonging to another entity, usually a bank or credit union. To me doing so is like placing an ATM customer in a very uncomfortable and unnecessary situation between banks where the customer ends up being inconvenienced. Moreover if I'm a bank and I get in between a customer trying to obtain his/her money from an ATM, I don't think it's a wise policy to destroy a customer's card that ultimately will drive that customer's business away for good. I think the policy is reactive and definitely not proactive and definitely not in the best interests of any ATM customers.

I'm not sure how any hijacking took place if in fact it did. I made a reply to Tylert14 so I do not know why you say I hijacked. When I wrote that reply it was my first. Your replies come across as arrogant and they have a rude overtone. Keep in mind that customers are the life blood of any business and that includes banks, credit unions, ATMs, and the like. Courteous and excellent customer service is not only appreciated and welcomed, it is also very important to maintain and to retain customers. I came to this website for help and to share my experiences with others.

FYI - i did have my bank expedite a new card and I was not charged for that service, and not even for the travelers checks. My bank's policy is exemplary of what it means to experience excellent customer service. My bank does not destroy any cards because it uses ATMs that do not confiscate any cards at all.

[xylene]

I have always been able to get a temporary card at my bank until my log card arrived.

Tough break for these posters.

[Veronica1228]

First of all, I have to point out that at this very moment you and I are not engaged in a customer service transaction. You are not my customer. My responses to you are not at all indicative of how I am in my professional interactions. If I seem rude to you it is because I am rude. This is a free website and you get what you pay for.

As for the rest, I have stated again and again the very logical and sound reasons behind a very common bank policy. In our business security is even more important than a very minor inconvenience. Obviously, this concept is way above your head so I'll just end this right here.

Again, I encourage you to attempt to get a law past regarding how you feel lost or abandoned cards should be handled. Let me know how that works out for you.

[Country Living]

Originally Posted by foxtrotter

I'm not sure how any hijacking took place if in fact it did. I made a reply to Tylert14 so I do not know why you say I hijacked. When I wrote that reply it was my first. Your replies come across as arrogant and they have a rude overtone.

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=393655[/url]
Particularly #7 and #8

[debtcollector`]

Originally Posted by Veronica1228

First of all, I have to point out that at this very moment you and I are not engaged in a customer service transaction. You are not my customer. My responses to you are not at all indicative of how I am in my professional interactions. If I seem rude to you it is because I am rude. This is a free website and you get what you pay for.

I don't think you are rude. I thought you were exceptionally nice.

DC

[foxtrotter]

Hey, you couldn't offer friendly courteous customer service because you admitted that you are rude. The customer service I was talking about is at the bank level where I was serviced and not on your level or in this website. Apparently because you aren't paid for your presence on this website you think you are entitled to be rude. You know what? Please don't reply to any more of my postings, you have nothing to offer that would be of any interest to me. In fact that quote at the bottom of your reply fits you quite well: "I've no time for broads who want to rule the world alone. Without men, who'd do up the zipper on the front of my mouth?"

[Veronica1228]

I realize that nothing I have to say is of any interest to you because it is intelligent, informed, and articulate. Having said that, however, if you don't want me to respond to your posts than don't post on this forum. I have much more knowledge about banking regulations and the banking industry in general than you do and have much more to offer to this site than you.

Here's a small reality check for you. This is a legal website. If you have a legal question go ahead and ask it and one of us will try to answer it. If all you want to do is whine about your ATM card ad naseum find another site. This isn't the place for it.

Have a good day and don't ever butcher a Bette Davis quote again unless you are prepared to be a lot more clever. You weren't even close.