That Was A Worrying First

Immediately after finishing shopping last night, I went to an ATM on beach road to take out 20,000 baht. (It's the ATM that is part of the currency exchange that is on the parking garage entrance of Royal Garden Plaza.)

I punched in my information, and asked for my money. The machine made the shush-shush-shush sound of counting money, and then said, "Transaction Cancelled. Please Contact Your Financial Institution."

Sometimes, if I use my bank card for a purchase (like I just did for groceries), and then go immediately to an ATM, it sets off an alarm somewhere at Chase Manhattan, and they "reign me in", as it were. So, I tried again, this time asking for only 10,000 baht, which the ATM promptly gave me... however, in 500-baht notes.

Much to my chagrin, on the receipt the ATM printed out, I noted that my bank balance was now 30,000 baht lower than it should have been instead of 10,000 baht.

However, by the time I got home and logged into Chase.com to see if what I thought had happened had really happened, the Thai bank had already taken out... and then put back... the never-delivered 20,000 baht. All was back to normal.

So, for the first time ever, I've experiened an ATM making a mistake and eating my money. (Apparently the 1000-baht note delivery system of this ATM got fouled up while counting out my 20,000.) Fortunately modern technology seems to have a backup plan in place for such a thing. Good to know it works.