ATM dispense errors can really be painful and frustrating. Especially, when that happens to be the last fund in the individual’s account. It is true that ATMs were designed to reduce stress on customers of banks seeking to withdraw money.



But the occurrence of dispense error can turn that joy into real pain and embarrassment .A times you will find an adult crying at an ATM stand because of dispense error occurrence.



Although the funds “could” be refunded by the bank, but that will not be instant. As the resolution period ranges from 1-5 working days depending on the acquirer bank. Transactions on international terminals could last up to 45 days for resolution. Also note the emphasis on “COULD”. Yes, there are instances where a claimed dispense error cannot be refunded. We shall be discussing that in our next series.



Now, having studied ATM operations in our country over time, our team has discovered proven common mistakes that people make and it leads to ATM dispense errors. These mistakes if avoided will drastically reduce the occurrence of dispense errors.

5 of these top mistakes are;



1. Insistence on withdrawing N40,000 at once
You put the ATM under much pressure to count out plenty notes. Especially with the poor quality of bills we have in circulation in the country. More so, the bank may have loaded only N500 bills in the ATM canisters. So your request for N40, 000 will require the machine to dispense 80 notes at once. Most of the terminals in Nigeria can only dispense 40 bills at once. Your account could be debited before the ATM will retract the dispensing process as it cannot be completed.

2. Using your card on other bank terminals

One of the major causes of ATM dispense error is; user or switch inoperative. This is mostly common when 2 different hosts are involved. If in the process of withdrawing, there is a glitch in the server of any of the host servers, then dispense error may occur. You reduce the chances of suffering dispense errors when you use your card on the issuing bank’s terminal. I know this is hard for persons who have accounts with banks that lack national coverage. But this is just the fact.

3. Usage of damaged or faulty ATM cards
Some customers use broken or damaged cards on ATM terminals. The ATM is designed to reject such cards at the point of initialization. But at times, the card reader responds late and then purges out the faulty card after the customer has made demand for cash payment already. This will lead to a dispense error. Damaged cards cause defects on the ATM and may strongly lead to dispense errors also.

4. Failure to read notices displayed around the ATM

Many card holders are always in a haste and fail to take notice of important information about the ATM. Information such as; cash out, withdraw maximum of N20,000 at once, not paying other bank cards, machine under test maintenance, can be displayed for customers to read and act on. When you fail to read such notices, then you could suffer a dispense error

5. Walking out before cash is released.
Banks are required to disable the retract command on the ATMs. Such that once cash is presented it cannot be retracted by the ATM. I have seen customers who rush into the bank claiming they were not paid, only for us to discover that the machine dispensed the cash at their absence.

Please do not leave the ATM point except your card has been released or the service availability mode is displayed on the ATM screen. This confirms that the ATM has concluded that service request session. When a card holder haste fully leaves the ATM, cash could actually be dispensed. The customer will be claiming to have suffered a dispense error, while to the bank cash was successfully dispensed.


https://www.financialclock.com/2017/04/06/top-5-common-mistakes-make-lead-atm-dispense-errors/

Nice write up. very informative.

by the way any ATM wey no dispense my cash come debit my account for this kwantri, I go use dis slippers swear for am..

it must catch fire!

Well said

Preferably clicking NO to print out paper slips







Card not smart