a note about ATM malfunctions

macocael

Bronze
Aug 3, 2004
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www.darkhorseimages.com
Dont know if anyone has had this befall them,but twice now in the space of a week I have had faulty transactions at Banco Popular atms. One at the branch on Boiivar just by Pasteur, and another at the ATM inside La Sirena over on La Mella.

All these years I have withdrawn money here, i never ran into this particular problem, but I thought I had better let people know. Maybe some of you have some answers too.

Both times I went to withdraw 6000 pesos I was given some rigmarole about lack of funds (in the machine) and the need to withdraw in smalller amounts. Both times no money was proffered, no receipt, and no explanation. But sure enough my acct was charged for both those withdrawals of 6000. So without knowing it, I was out about 400 bucks. I checked with my bank in the US, and sure enough those amounts were debited -- so I was told to go to each branch where i enacted the transaction (I steer clear of the street machines) and fill out an E regulation form. Well no one at either branch knew anything about that and at the second branch i was told by the agent that the form was not relevant since we were talking about withdrawals made on a foreign account with an ATM card issued by a bank other than Banco Popular. THere seems to be complete confusion about the process at both ends.

Anyway, I am still trying to clear it all up, but I thought I should let the community know that this is a problem at some ATMs and one should be aware that they could unwittingly be losing money when they walk away from a seemingly straightforward failure to cough up dough.
 

Sharlene

New member
Mar 4, 2006
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It's happened before....

There have been a couple of posts about these faulty transactions recently. If you do a search you'll bring all the details up. Apparently it's happened to a few people in different areas, at different banks.

It's happened to me twice, and on both occasions it's been fairly simple to claim the money back both from my DR bank and my UK bank. I just went into MY DR bank and filled out a form, even though the ATM was for a different bank and the money was back in my account within a week. With regard to the UK bank, I bank online with them so I sent them a private message and they re-credited my account while they were looking into it. They couldn't actually agree with the DR bank that the funds hadn't been taken out, but left the credit in my bank account because I insisted that it hadn't been withdrawn.

I try to make keep ATM withdrawals to a minimum now, and then only during the day when the banks are open so that I can deal with any problems immediately.
 

macocael

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Aug 3, 2004
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www.darkhorseimages.com
exacly sharlene, I agree with all your precautions and now I am considering making some kind of straight transfer/withdrawal once a month from the foreign acct, then using strictly my Dominican acct here henceforth for the daily transactiions. IN these two cases though my local acct was not being used, and I would not worry then if it had been. USing the foreign acct is what complicates matters.