ATM dispenses free money - and Poll

[pixy0stix]

news.yahoo.com/police-called-atm-dispenses-free-cash-102426398.html

Police were called to restore calm in eastern England after a cash machine started dispensing twice the money its customers were asking for.

The Lloyds TSB cash machine in Ipswich began dispensing "free money" to customers Wednesday after the bank branch had closed for the evening.

As word of the fault spread, a crowd began to gather, prompting arguments among those trying to use the faulty machine.

Police were called in to keep watch until the bank's staff could take the machine out of service.

A Lloyds' spokesman said the machine had been "misdispensing" cash for only a "short time". The spokesman added: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Some 30 people are thought to have benefitted from the glitch.

It is not clear how much money the bank lost, or if it will be able to recover the funds.

Emma Hutchinson, from Ipswich, told the Ipswich Star: "Word got around pretty quickly. My friend asked for £40 and the machine gave out £80."

She told the newspaper that she went to see if the rumour was true but decided not to withdraw any money herself.

Lloyds Banking Group, which had to be bailed out by the British government to the tune of £21 billion at the height of the global financial crisis, said in a results statement Thursday that it had cut interim net losses to £676 million on the back of restructuring measures.

Responding to reports of the faulty Lloyds cash machine, one Twitter user, @fizzysparkler, commented: "Nice to see one bank is giving back."

[mominatrix]

I voted "yes, but I'd expect a call later"...

But it's like, if I'm at the ATM anyway, I'm there because I need cash. If the person ahead of me in line says "gee, it gave me too much money!" I'd be like, "wow. that's interesting." And put my card in and take out what I need and if I get extra, I'm expecting a call from the bank. I might even call them to tell them.

I wouldn't rush out to go to some random malfunctioning ATM because somebody posted about it on Facebook, though.

[twotrue]

Unrelated but there was an error with my employer's payroll processing and people were reimbursed 3x what they should have been for mileage this payroll. So someone submitting claims for $500 in mileage was paid $1500. All total it was a $35K error! Staff have been told they need to give the money back but some are stating that since it was the employer's error, they get to keep the funds.

[penguingrrl]

My mom once had the ATM dispense more than she asked for on a weekend. She called the bank Monday morning and they were aware of the problem and withdrawing the extra money from each account. For those who used it and were from other banks they were getting in touch with the banks. It's not like everyone got to keep the extra money, they just had to hunt it down.

[EloiseWeenie]

Jul 26, 2012 12:18:52 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

My mom once had the ATM dispense more than she asked for on a weekend. She called the bank Monday morning and they were aware of the problem and withdrawing the extra money from each account. For those who used it and were from other banks they were getting in touch with the banks. It's not like everyone got to keep the extra money, they just had to hunt it down.

Yup. My husband works for a CU, and said if something like that happens, they go into the account and correct the actual balance.

[AJL]

I'd be pissed if I got double what I asked for. It's coming out of my account (so I would have assumed) and I watch my budget like a hawk. If I found out that the money was NOT coming out of my account and it was truly "free", I would have probably gone back to the bank to return it.

[msmerymac]

I got into an argument with a friend about "found money" once. She claimed that if you wouldn't keep the money, you obviously have never been poor. ^o)

I'm with Momi. If the machine gave me too much, I'd hold onto the extra and put it back when possible. Probably I'd go into a branch when the bank opened and explain the error.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't run out to try, but if it gave me 'free' money when I was there of course I'd love it! I'd expect the bank to correct it though.
On a related note, I have a friend who noticed there was a 5k deposit into her acct in uni. She went to the ank and it appeared that someone deposited it in person at the branch. Apparently they tried for a year to figure out if it was a mistake or what happened but never could. So after 1 year they sAid it was hers!