Seth Nickell

Today is a bad day for banking.

So this morning (not 20 minutes ago) I pulled up to a bank’s drive-up ATM with the intent of withdrawing $40. I ended up with $400. I also managed to lose my bank card.

Despite the fact that most ATMs only handle money in multiples of $20, they still require you to enter the “cents”. So asking for $40 entails the button sequence 4-0-0-0. I almost always withdraw $40, so I perform this series of presses without a lot of higher brain involvement. Unfortunately, this ATM fixed a “bug” in the way 95% ATMs work: they only let you enter whole dollar values.

So I pressed 4-0-0…. and caught myself before pressing the final 0 based on the feedback on screen (actually, if I’d pressed the final 0 things would have turned out better because ATMs won’t give you $4000 in a single transaction).

Most ATMs have on screen commands and buttons along the sides of the screen that are supposed to line up with the commands (press the button and it executes the command “next” to it). The problem is they often have the buttons far enough away from the edge of the screen, and the buttons are raised. The net effect is that at different heights the buttons line up differently. Additionally, even when there are only two options, they tend to put them on buttons that are right next to each other. Even given the flawed physical design, the chance of error could be dramatically reduced if the options were always kept as far from each other as possible.

Well, I was flustered, because its disturbing to know that one button press will dump $400 in cash on you: I wanted that $400 off the screen pronto! In my haste I did not account for the button line up (my car is really small and hence low… buttons must have been designed for an SUV), and pressed the accept option instead of cancel. 30 seconds later I’m flush with benjamins.

So my first reaction is “put this cash somewhere safe”, so I find a place to stow it temporarily. Then I glance over and see the receipt and grab it, because I sure want a record of this transaction until I count the loot. Then I realize that because I’m getting an apt soon, I really want the money in the bank ASAP, so I back up and grab a deposit envelop.What did I forget? Oh yes, I forgot to take my card.

So I pull away from the ATM into the bank’s parking lot to fill out the deposit envelop, stuff the cash into it, and head back to the machine. I fumble around my wallet for my card. Can’t find it. Then I realize that I might have put the card loose on the seat next to me (which I sometimes do if I’ve already stowed my wallet in my pocket). So I drive back to the parking lot and dismantle my car looking for the card. Then it hits me 🙁

So I head into the bank, and the nice man at the desk gets the manager and they go to check the ATM. Oh sorry, your card was with another bank, so we can’t give it back to you. Unfortunately my credit union has no branches within thousand miles of here, so its going to take time to get a new card.

$(#*&(&*(*&!!! On the upside, I got $400 out of the account before losing my card, and I guess I can still write checks from that account to get an apt, so its not the end of the world.

I can’t believe I did this because I’ve always been grumpy and conscious of the button-line-up usability problem present in many ATMs. Good ATMs have the buttons close to the screen and at the same height as the screen so it all lines up no matter what angle you look at it from…or they’re touch screens (which has other downsides at times, but overall I think is an improvement).