Bad luck with cash machines
Mis-vends are rare enough with cash machines that most of you will have been lucky enough to not have a clue what they are. I am however unlucky enough for it to have happened to me not once, but twice. From experience I can tell you that a mis-vend only happens when you are trying to take out a large amount of money.

The first time I was unlucky enough to be the victim of a mis-vend was during the brief period where my father was actually sticking to his word and paying for my education. Since he lives in the States and I live in good old Blighty, he used to put my monthly living costs into my American account. This account charged me a percentage plus standard fee to take out money in the UK therefore making it advisable to take money out of the cash point in as large a sum as possible. I very quickly discovered that at the time most cash machines would only let you withdraw £250 at a time but Abbey would let you have £500 a go. One day my father emails me to tell me he's deposited my monthly stipend into my US account so I duly head to the cash machine to withdraw my £500. I go through the usual rigmarole only to be told that my transaction could not be completed. I thought that maybe the money hadn't cleared into my account yet so I went to an internet cafe to check my online banking, only to see that the deposit had indeed gone through but so had the aborted withdrawal. I immediately ran back to Abbey where they told me I had to fill in a form to get my money back. In this case I only had to live on beans on toast for about a week before the money reappeared in my account.

The second time I was the victim of a mis-vend was just a few months ago. I was in my student's union and without enough money to purchase my round so needed to visit the cash machine. Since it was a Friday night and I was planning to go clubbing on the Saturday, I decided to take out £100 to do me the for weekend. I put my card in, gave the machine my pin and selected the £100 option, the machine then returns my card and tells me that it's processing my transaction. All well and good so far but at this point the machine starts having a complete hissy fit and beeps like mad for about a minute, finally resetting itself to the "next customer please" screen without giving me my money. I of course have a complete freaker and inform the conveniently placed bouncer of what has happened (always good to have a witness against the banks). He relays this to union staff who, very kindly, take me upstairs so I can check my online banking to see if the money had gone out, and subsequently ring the bank up when it transpired that the money had, in fact, gone out of my account. I first rang up the bank who's cash machine it was, only to be told that I would need to talk to my bank. Why??? It's their mistake, what does it have to do with my bank really? So I then ring my bank, informed them of what's happened and was given the advice of wait a few days to see if the money comes back into your account and if not, go into a branch and fill out a mis-vend form. So a week later when my money had not reappeared into my account I went into my branch and told them what had happened, filled in the form and was told that I would get my money back within ten working days. It took a month for me to get that £100 back. Luckily I was alright for money at the time, but imagine if I'd been a piss poor student trying to take out their last £100 so that they could eat? Surprisingly enough I didn't get any interest on that hundred quid either.

In addition to machines deciding not to give me my money, I am also plagued with machines deciding to keep my card. I was moving out of halls into a new place, while buying my train ticket from the machine when the machine did the most unusual thing of not only not giving me my ticket, but also not returning my card. At this point I had about a fiver on me. Fortunately when I was cooking dinner the night before I told one of my hallsmates that I was moving out that day and they offered to give me a lift to the station, so when my card got eaten I was able to borrow some cash for my train fair and to live on for the weekend until I was able to get to the bank to withdraw some money. If I hadn't of gotten a lift to the station I would have paid the taxi driver with my last fiver and found myself in the middle of nowhere with no money and a load of luggage which I wouldn't have been able to drag anywhere.
For my current tale of card eatage woe see my previous post: b3ta.com/questions/banks/post483682
(mmm....beer, Fri 17 Jul 2009, 22:28, 1 reply)

One way round it.
Get yourself a UK bank account (go for a student one and they sometimes give you freebies) and then transfer over the US balance in one go each month. Then you can take out as little as you need from the UK account each time without the charges.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 18 Jul 2009, 14:22, closed)