Bank of Ireland to refund cash to 43,000 ATM customers

MEDIA STATEMENT - Refund to Bank of Ireland ATM users
Bank of Ireland's internal monitoring process has identified that some customers were not previously refunded when they did not take their cash from an ATM when making a cash withdrawal and where their account was debited for the transaction.
The bank confirms that it is refunding €1.3m to 14,000 Bank of Ireland customers this week. The bank has also initiated immediate consultation with a range of other banks in order to expedite the distribution, through these banks, of a further €1.7m in refunds to 29,000 non-customers who were also affected.
This issue arose following the installation of anti-fraud measures which resulted in the normal system response of automatically prompting a refund to issue not to occur for these particular transactions.
There is no need for customers to take any action. Bank of Ireland customers are being refunded this week and the bank will be passing all refunds for non-customers to other banks who will arrange for these refunds to be credited to their own customers' accounts. However, if any Bank of Ireland customer has a query with a specific ATM transaction they should contact their own branch or telephone Bank of Ireland 365 at 1890 365365 (ROI), 0845-736-533 (GB) or 0845-736-555 (NI). Non-Bank of Ireland customers should raise any queries directly with their own bank.
Bank of Ireland notified the Financial Regulator when the issue was identified.
Bank of Ireland apologises for this error and wishes to reassure all cardholders who use Bank of Ireland ATMs that since October 2009 we have enhanced our procedures for handling all such incomplete transactions.
In line with industry best practice, it is a fundamental aspect of our business to continually monitor the effectiveness of our controls. When errors are identified it is our policy to issue refunds with fair value interest and ensure procedures and systems are enhanced to avoid a reoccurrence.
ENDS 20th July 2010
 
There were two problems

People walked away without their cash
They take out their atm card and walk away. The ATM takes back the cash after a few minutes. The cash should be credited back to the person's account, but it wasn't.


People walked away without their ATM Card
Some people do the transaction properly and then just walk away without their card. No cash is paid out. The card is swallowed back up.


It's hard to believe that of the 43,000 customers none of them noticed? Some others must have noticed and got refunds. Did this not trigger an earlier investigation from the bank?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It's hard to believe that of the 43,000 customers none of them noticed? Some others must have noticed and got refunds. Did this not trigger an earlier investigation from the bank?
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Boss, think about it. This happened to me some years ago. Went to ATM to draw out money. Returned to my car and "oh sugar I left the money at the machine". Rushed back to machine and money is gone. I kicked myself but had no thoughts of referring my error to the bank. Pleasant surprise when I got my next statement that the machine had somehow sucked the money back in.
 
Duke

i can understand leaving a credit card behind in a shop. I can understand leaving a shop without waiting for your change.

But if I go to an ATM to take out cash, I am going to wait for the cash.

There must be other people who left the cash behind and someone else came along and took it. I haven't heard anyone report: "I found cash waiting at an ATM today?".

Maybe they should reverse the order and hand out the cash first? But I suppose if they did that, 43,000 people would walk away without their cards.
 
I did this once when someone was talking to me and I was distracted. Only realised a few minutes later. I was in a large queue in College Green and the 'nice' person behind me didn't bother to tell me.

My father went to a machine as a lady was walking away and there was a huge pile of money sticking out of the machine. He said it looked like an awful lot, so he took it and went into the supermarket to search for her. He found her and the poor woman almost died when she realised she had left it there. Lucky it was my father who came across it and was honest enough to go and find her.

I'd say it happens an awful lot.
 
I think there is some kind of balancing the "books" for an ATM machine and, if so, one would think the cash coming back into the machine and the fact the accounts were not credited would show up in some way.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Duke

But if I go to an ATM to take out cash, I am going to wait for the cash.
Click to expand...
I know it's a bit hard to believe, but I was that soldier. When I went back to see if the cash was there and it wasn't I presumed it had been taken by the next guy/gal. And the point is I saw no reason to contact the bank - it was a lost cause so far as I was concerned.
 
I've done this in a Spar and the guys couldnt be nicer...(checked their security cameras to make sure it wasnt taken by the next person). when they realised it had been swallowed up, they gave me the atm machine no., I called BOI and had the money back the next day. Was a bit mortified.......................
 
I've done this on more than one occasion (more than two or three occasions, if the truth be told).
Following each occurrence, I've contacted my bank (my face, a deeper shade of crimson each time) they've filled out a report and the money has always been credited to my account after a few weeks.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Duke

i can understand leaving a credit card behind in a shop. I can understand leaving a shop without waiting for your change.

But if I go to an ATM to take out cash, I am going to wait for the cash.

There must be other people who left the cash behind and someone else came along and took it. I haven't heard anyone report: "I found cash waiting at an ATM today?".

Maybe they should reverse the order and hand out the cash first? But I suppose if they did that, 43,000 people would walk away without their cards.
Click to expand...


Brendan, that's the way it used to be and the Bank's changed it as it was believed people would not walk away without cash in the same way as once they received the cash they did so without the card which was a regular occurence.

On the money issue, I have to say, I did it once and I hope Ulster bank follows BOI's lead. I was in a hurry and taking a lift. I keyed in my details and how much I wanted - got my card back and ran to the car. Only down the road did I realise I had not waited for the cash! Too late. I contacted Ulster Bank; however have never head a dickiebird since. (I don't bank with them).

On a separate note, I have heard of people finding cash 'waiting' for them when they visited the ATM.
 
I see it from the other side and the most common reason I've heard of, for people forgetting their cash, is their mobile phone ringing!
I had to phone a guy once as it seemed to me he was due a refund. He had taken €200 out twice in the space of 5mins so I reckoned that was why my machine was out. He explained that it was half-time in the match, ran over from the pub to get money and hadn't a clue if he'd got or spent the money....his team won so he was celebrating! I gave him the refund anyway and he was thrilled....great to make someones' day like that!

Seriously though you should always ask. Yes, sometimes, someone behind takes the money but you'd be amazed how many people walk into the bank to hand in money that was left in the machine. There are still a lot of honest people around, and long may that last...
 
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