ATM Bank Machine Errors - anyone encounter anything like this?

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From BBC NEWS - England - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3667279.stm

Double money in cash point error
 
A bank has admitted a cash point blunder gave customers double their money.

Queues formed at Barclays bank in Wooler, Northumberland, when word spread the ATM was dishing out £20 notes instead of £10 notes.

The mistake is being blamed on a wrongly-loaded cash cassette in the dispenser, which was provided by another company.

The bank says customers who were given the cash will not have to pay it back.

The cash cassette was loaded with £20 notes when it should have contained £10 notes.

Empty in hours

Customers using debit cards which have a £200 limit on cash machine withdrawals suddenly found it was paying out £400 on 21 April.

Within hours the machine had been emptied.

Bank officials were alerted by one customer who reported the additional payout.

The problem cassette was immediately replaced.

A Barclays spokeswoman said the bank would be seeking compensation from the company which installed the cash cassette.

Second cash bonanza

She said: "On this occasion we will not be asking customers to pay back any money they were issued by the machine.

"This is a very rare occurrence and was not the responsibility of Barclays.

"We will be seeking compensation from our third party partner."

In a similar incident, scores of customers swooped on a Halifax Bank dispenser in Urmston, Greater Manchester after it began giving out an extra £20 with each transaction.

It is thought up to £65,000 may have been emptied from the machine in 12 hours during the cash bonanza on Tuesday night.

Staff discovered the glitch when they turned up for work on Wednesday and immediately switched the machine off.

The cash point was issuing £20 notes instead of £10 notes

From the British Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=539609&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true

Bank customers queue round the block as cash machine pays out DOUBLE their money
By NICK McDERMOTT - More by this author »
Last updated at 15:04pm on 20th March 2008

Once the word was out, there was no stopping them. Within minutes of one lucky customer finding out that the cash machine at his local supermarket was giving out double the requested withdrawal, the news spread like wildfire.

Customers popping down to their Sainsbury's Local store for a few basics got in on the act - and they were soon joined by hundreds of others as they alerted family and friends to the ultimate supermarket bargain.

At one stage, the queue for the cash machine was a 100-strong - with many making multiple withdrawals in the hope they will not be traced and asked to repay the cash.

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Jackpot: Word of the fault spread quickly and more and more people began to queue outside the Sainsburys Local cashpoint

"It was really funny seeing all those people trying to get one over on the banks," said a witness.

"They were walking away with huge wads of cash and big smiles on their faces.

"They were ringing their mates and telling them to get down quickly. It makes up for all the bank charges, I guess. I hope they don't have to pay it back."

The crowd began gathering at the store in Hull at around 5pm on Tuesday and finally dispersed at 8pm when the faulty ATM ran out of notes.

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Two for one: Customers queue outside the cash machine in Hull last night which paid out twice the amount requested before running out of cash

One man, who did not wish to be named, said: "I was driving past when I saw a huge queue at the cash machine.

"I parked up and learned that it was paying out double. I joined the queue and when I finally got to the front, I drew out £200, but it gave me £400.

"The statement said I only drew out £200. I don't know whether I will have to pay it back."

Not everyone was so lucky. Taxi driver David Mellors, 37, pulled up too late and by the time he reached the front of the queue, the machine had run out of notes.

The father-of-seven said: "I was disappointed. It was the ultimate buy one, get one free sale and I missed out."

A spokesman for Sainsbury's said the cash machine was run by a private company. She declined to give the company's name and said it was unable to comment.

Asked how much money Sainsbury's believes was lost from the machine, she replied: "We do not know and we would not give out that kind of information."

She added: "It ran out of money at 8pm. The police came to see the machine and the matter is under investigation."

Most debit cards have a daily cash withdrawal limit of £300 - meaning that those lucky enough to use the haywire machine were able to take out a maximum of £600.

Whether they will get to keep it is another matter. The cash machine operator will have a record of all withdrawals made on the day.

It is then up to the discretion of the customers' banks whether or not they seek to trace each one and attempt to reclaim any overpayment.

On similar previous occasions, some banks have chosen to write off the money rather than pursue a large number of claims.

And there may be many more potential claims to be chased after unconfirmed reports suggested that other machines were also hit by the same fault.

The Sainsbury's spokesman said: "We think a number of cash machines outside supermarkets in Hull experienced similar problems."

I remember something like this in the news last year and they tracked down all the customers and debited their accounts for the overpayment so I guess it is just like errors that banks make when they deposit money in the wrong account and then debit it when they find the error.