The card hadn't come out of the machine.
I'd done everything correctly - not hesitated too long when pressing the buttons, got the PIN correct, not tried to snatch the card from the machine and triggered a safety system. But there'd been nothing.
The card did not return to me from the slot.

I racked my brains. I was sure that neither solvency nor liquidity was a problem. Besides - though I never use it, I have quite a generous overdraft facility. I'd've remembered busting through the bottom of that.

Maybe my account had been hacked.

Shit. I'd better talk to the cashier.

The branch was quiet, and I tried to be nonchalant as I approached the counter. I was anything but calm inside. My card hadn't come back to me, and this could only be a bad thing.

I smiled. The casher smiled back.
"Um... the machine outside just ate my card."
"Oh. Did it ask you for your PIN first?"
"Yeah. All that was normal. I put in the pin, asked for a tenner, took the money, but the card stayed put."
"You got the money?"
"Yep."
"That normally comes out after the card. It's unusual to get money but no card."
"That's what I thought. But..."
... and somewhere in the back of my consciousness, I could hear the sound of air hissing out from a balloon of certainty.

Tentatively, I opened my wallet.

The card was there. Of course the machine had returned it. I'd just been so caught in the routine that I hadn't noticed that I'd taken it and put it back to its habitual place.

The cashier read the expression on my face perfectly and smiled again.

"You know," I offered, "I do feel somewhat foolish."
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 17 Jul 2009, 11:03, 3 replies)

I have almost
done this on several occasions.
SHIT! Where the fuck is my....oh.
(berk, Fri 17 Jul 2009, 15:13, closed)

Y'know
they make the card come out before the money, because they found that if they did it the other way around people would take the money and leave the card. Now the machines are designed so that they won't release the cash until you take the card.

But it is the same psychology. You go to the ATM to get cash, so cash is what is in your mind, not the card. The same thing that makes people forget the card when they get the cash first, is what causes you to not recall taking the card.

Interesting?
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 2:36, closed)

erm
I have done this too. I always look now before saying anything.
(cmouse is pondering about life in other jobs, Thu 23 Jul 2009, 12:59, closed)