A month ago I had two ATM cards, one for our business account, one for my personal account. Somehow in the last two weeks I have lost them both.
Each time, the cards disappeared after I drew cash from one particular machine at an Oxxo. I know I didn't leave the card there, I've gotten very paranoid about machines eating my cards, after it happened once in Obregon. Yet somehow while I was putting pesos and card away in my wallet, the card vanished. Vaporized! Disappeared into a black hole! ¡Esfumarse! (I love that comforting Spanish expression, it means it made itself disappear, in a puff of smoke.) Poof!
This time, just to reinforce with a little extra pain the lesson that I must become more mindful, I will to have to pay my US bank $45 to wire funds to my Mexican bank.
From now on, when I go to the ATM, I will make believe I'm going to a shrine. Well, isn't it, in a way? Before sticking in my card, I will say a prayer that the machine works, has the funds and will part with them. I will carefully watch each phase of the transaction on the screen, while also checking that I (and my PIN#) am not being observed. When/if the cash comes out I will say a prayer of thanks. I will then put the pesos in my wallet, take deep breaths (good in, evil out) while waiting for the card, and then if/when it pops out, I will kiss that #%@& little piece of plastic reverently, and carefully slip it into its designated slot in my wallet, with another gratitude prayer. Just in case, I will look at the floor around me to make sure it hasn't somehow escaped.
9 comments:
I have noticed that every machine in Mexico is different. Some spit the card right out once you place it in the slot, some hold on to it until the end and some spit it out somewhere in between. Keith and I have had to tag team the entire process. I take care of the questions, and he snatches the card back from the monster before it esfumarse.
Been there done that, so don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I started keeping sole wallet with only one card for an easy reminder.
Forget trying to retrieve the card back also, I had one swallowed up, easier just to get a replacement card, but a pain!
Oh, that's too bad. I know we had some of the debit machines in our town tampered with. They had an extended piece on the slot where you insert the card. It was an extra reader and collected the data, card and pin number. This info was later used to suck money from you account. I had $161 drawn from my account and used at an automotive store in the Philippines.
If you don't guard your money, someone else will.
I love that word! It looks like it should be on Google's Word Verification (you sure you didn't actually get it there?) For those of us who MUST (for one reason or another) take responsibility for our actions, the passive voice is certainly tempting... " that bottle of tequila was, itself consumed... " $45 bucks is quite a bite. Oh well.
My rule: ONLY use ATM's at the bank during hours they are open ONLY. Try to always use the same ATM - you get to know them ;-)
My U.S. bank, Citibank (Banamex USA) in Los Angeles, wires money to my Mexican bank, Banamex, without charging a nickel or a peso.
C&K - Tag team is a good idea. Not being in a hurry would be another good idea, for me anyway.
Tancho - You're right, I shouldn't even be carrying the cards unless I'm going to get cash.
Jomamma - I hate to say it, but it wasn't the machine. I lost the cards, both of them. But that's scary about the thieving machines, it had to have been the bank or the maintenance people who did that.
MxSailor - No, it's a real word, from fumar. I'm not sure you could use it for consuming tequila. And yes, $45 is awful but I know somebody whose bank charges $50.
Calypso - The Banamex here in town is notorious for not being helpful with balky ATMs. And I was at an Oxxo. And it wasn't the machine's fault, I lost the cards myself.
Felipe - RE: Banamex, see note to Calypso. Not all banks are equal, depends on the local guys running them.
Our Pátzcuaro Banamex was bad until they changed managers. Then it got far better. A couple of years ago, they made a young woman manager. She´s great. She had toiled there in a lesser position for a good while until she got the top job. Made all the difference in the world.
No, it wasn't bank employees... it was a ring of thieves that were working Texas and Oklahoma. They would plug the device in and now that I think about it, I think it would "eat" your card and then they would come back in the night and remove the device and keep all the cards they had gathered over the day.
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