I stopped at Western Bank today to use their ATM and I was shocked!

I withdrew $200 and that darn machine gave it to me all in 5 dollar bills. This is not my regular Bank, so I was wondering has this happened to anyone else?

-- Stash (stashin@yahoo.com), October 02, 1999

Answers

Probably either the higher-denomination bill canisters were empty, or else the feed mechanism for the higher-denomination canisters was out of order.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), October 02, 1999.

yes, this has happened to me as well. Several times over the last decade in fact.

nothing to be "shocked" about.....yet

There is a finite amount of $20 bills in the machine.

there are also $10's and $5's. If I ask for $195, I get a $10 bill and a $5 bill in addition to the twenties. But mostly $20's.

When the machine counts out the bills, it sorts them. Any bills that the machine determines "might not" make it through the auto-dispense mechanism are diverted to another "reject" drawer, then it adds more bills and counts and tests them again. this process can happen several times in just one transaction, ever stand there and hear the thing doing its thang and it seems to be stuck in a loop?

If you are getting only $5 bills, this means that the machine is almost empty. Its like a vending machine. Someone has to come by and fill it. If they don't fill it, it runs out.

then you get the screen that says "this machine temporarily unable to dispense cash".

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), October 02, 1999.

Anyone know how much money exactly an ATM machine holds full? I have heard the figure $80,000 which is gotten from 2 canisters of $40,000 each. But don't know how the denominations are laid out in the canister.There obviously are 5, 10, and $20 denominations all in there.

-- profit_of_doom (doom@helltopay.ca), October 02, 1999.

I can tell you that every ATM I've used over the last 2 or 3 years has ONLY dispensed 20s. They *used* to do 10s and 5s but I haven't seen that in a long time...

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), October 02, 1999.

If this starts to happen a bunch, maybe we could say that the banks are limiting $$$, and it could be Y2K related. I think the machine had a busy day, and ran out of $20. At least you made it! It would be out of $5 soon, at $200 a pop...

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 02, 1999.

Citibank in NYC for $200 gives all $20s and two $10s. For $1,000, it gives all $50s plus four $20s and two $10s. The limit is $1,000 per day. It never gives $5s.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), October 03, 1999.

regarding the comments about "never giving out $5's"

Are you using the "Quick Cash" function? or can you specify an amount?

You should be able to specify any amount divisible by 5. such as $195.

that's the way it works in the Chicago area with "Cash Station" machines, however, there are several manufacturers of ATM machines and some may allow for the $5 tray and some may only allow for $20 trays (yuppie food coupons).

If they only allow $20 bills, they can fit more bills in between re- loads.

I like to linger at the machine if noone is around and poke through the receipts in the trash to see what people are doing.

most of the receipts I see have current available balances of under $200.

and people do type in odd amounts (like $38), which of course the machine rejects.....

fun stuff these ATM's.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), October 03, 1999.