What to do if your foreign bank card is “swallowed” -taken away, eaten, with no hope of recovery- by the ATM? A friend of a friend, visiting Taiwan, used the 7-11 ATM -which he had used before, no problem- accidentally mistyped his password and GULP! lost his card in the ATM’s innards. They called the bank in charge of the ATM -I think it is Chinatrust- and they said he has to call the bank abroad. In the meantime, big $$$ problem.
Has anyone had this experience and if so, how was the problem solved? Guy’s foreign bank obviously has no representative here in Taiwan.
Sorry, Icon never learned proper pinyin. Zemapana? = translation: what to do?[/quote]
Ahhhhh… “Zenme ban?” It might be easier if you just wrote the Chinese characters.
Well, I think more people would understand the characters compared to the new Icon pinyin system. [/quote]
Nah, take the road less traveled, use your own. Don’t be bound by tradition, blaze a glorious new path to interpersonal misunderstanding!!
Well, I think more people would understand the characters compared to the new Icon pinyin system. [/quote]
Nah, take the road less traveled, use your own. Don’t be bound by tradition, blaze a glorious new path to interpersonal misunderstanding!! [/quote]
That’s what the government does in Chiayi. Some signs are in Tongyong, some are in Wade-Giles, and some are in a mystery system that absolutely no one can identify yet. I wish they would just use hanyu pinyin like in Taipei.
Yeah…I can appreciate how that would really put your friend in a bind. Did the machines capture his/her card after only 1 incorrect entry of password/PIN? That would be a bit surprising but perhaps normal for Taiwan.
The bank that owns the capturing ATM should return the card to the issuing bank. That process may be complicated if the issuing bank is a domestic U.S. or other western nation bank. Going to the capturing bank is worth a try as they may release the card to you (as in Cranky Laowei’s case) - however, they really should not do that. Techincally, the card is the property of the issuing bank which they allow you to use in order to access your account.
One thing your friend should defintely do is contact his/her bank to let them know the card was captured and to institute whatever kind of fraud prevention, checks, etc. are available. Its likely a very remote possibilty as the card should be de-activated upon capture - but you never know and better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps the issuing bank could arrange some alternative - temporary access to the account given that your friend is out of country and in a very dire situation.
This happened to me in Peru and there was no chance of getting the card back. I called my bank and they could have had a card to me in less than a week (possibly 3-4 days) but I just used my visa (high fees) for the last couple of weeks of my trip. I was moving around a lot and I didn’t want to try to coordinate my trip with getting the card.
The same thing happened to me in China when using a card issued by a Taiwanese bank. I phoned the number on the ATM machine (i.e. number of the machine the ATM belonged to). It was some HK bank.
Anyway, they said when the ATM next got emptied the card would be delivered to their main Shanghai branch. So after about a day or two I got a call saying I could go down to pick it up.
It wasn’t that simple to get them to give it back though. They told me to bring my passport. But to be safe I also brought deposit books for my Taiwan account, and my other Taiwan accounts, and even receipts for previous withdrawals. They ended up asking for all that. Thing is that the card didn’t have my name on it, the name of the bank was only there in small print on the back (the card was one of those weird special edition ones with an oil panting instead of the bank logo), and in any case the bank no longer existed under that name since it merged with another bank years ago. Plus I’d never bothered to sign the card like you’re supposed to. But anyway, they eventually returned it to me.
An ATM once ate my card on a Friday evening after work. I was so pissed I hit the machine hard and it literally collapsed into the bank through the wall. No I am not superman; the screws were shit and the wall was plaster. Still one of the funniest moments in my life as I stuck my head in through the gap to see a dozen bank workers staring back at me mouths agape.
Even funnier is that they just told me to come inside. They then opened the machine and gave me back my card (with a polite request that I don’t hit ATMs anymore).
It might be easier if you just wrote the Chinese characters.
