Financial Freedom SG

Saw someone, a China National, whose $1000 withdrawal was being eaten up by the now infamous DBS ATM.

Think it is pretty common occurrence. Another auntie was there to help the guy by asking him to call the DBS hotline. He was at a loss because he saw that his balance was being deducted by the amount.

Having experienced this type of thing with the DBS ATM before. I told the guy that he should wait for a while to check his balance again.

I had a previous experience where the same thing happened. The DBS ATM show the balance deducted, but no money was coughed up by the darned machine. 1 or 2 minutes later, I went to check again at the same machine to check my balance. And hey presto, the balance was re-credited back with the correct amount.

So the guy managed to see his $1000 back in his balance when he checked again.

This is the type of run around if you use their ATMs, so better get used to it.

On hindsight, I’ve seen before an old guy who withdrew like hundreds or thousands with a stack of S$50 notes hanging out of the ATM and just walked away without talking his money. Of course I chased after him to tell him to get his money.

I’ve tested it out before just for the hell of it by seeing if the machine will eat back the money if you don’t take it (there wasn’t anyone behind me, else I will be getting the evil eye). And it does. So the machine eats the money and after a while, it knows that you didn’t take the money and credits it back to you.

Anyway, even if they didn’t they will do a check and balance the receipts so make sure you call the bank’s call centre if you encounter any errors.

But the most tiresome thing is the $200 ATM at places like the Boon Lay’s Jurong Point where you must withdraw a minimum of $200.

What did I do?

I withdrew the $200, took what I need and deposit the rest back to my account via their Cash Deposit Machine. Maybe their branch manager or IT manager has a usage quota that he or she must hit before they get their bonus.

Or they have nothing better to do.