Does anyone here work at a bank?
I went to check my account balance on the atm tonight since it was pay day. Well, yesterday I had $340 and I should have had my pay check go in today. Why would the stupid machine be telling me I have an invalid account?! The worst part is having to wait until tomorrow to go down there and figure this whole mess out. Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on here? (I am the only one on my account, no one else has any access to my checks or atm card.)
sorry couldn't help it. I don't know, the more tech the systems go the worse they get. Good luck. Can you check you acct by phone? I can check depoists and bal and if checks cleared. I can't do mine on the computer but my husband does. I didn't sign up for that.
I don't know why it would tell you "invalid account". But it maybe a way your bank shuts down the system so that they can do nightly processing updates. Were you able to make a withdrawal or make a POS (point of sale) purchase at, lets say, Wal-mart if it is a check card? Some banks will not allow transactions to be made at the ATMs until the nightly processing is complete. Bank practices are all different.
I would try back in the morning, or maybe after midnight.
It is possible that the particular ATM you went to was temporarily offline or the bank's system went down temporarily. If it had been a balance issue, you would've gotten a different kind of message. Did you press the correct type of account when requesting the balance? Some people choose "savings" when they only have a "checking," or vice versa and they will get that "invalid acct" message. I do work in a bank... Is there an automated telephone banking system at your bank? Or do you have online banking? Both are good backup options. Hope the mystery gets cleared up soon!
I tried the automated number and it just kept saying I was using the wrong pin number but honestly I wasn't! I know my pin I used it just yesterday and all week long. I didn't want to try a POS and look like a giant jacka_s in the store or if something really is wrong over draft or something.
Do you think it could just be my atm card got messed up some how? I don't know how that would happen but maybe it could. Ugh! I just hate having to wait all night to get this cleared up. Thanks for your help!
Original Post by tina_4792:
It is possible that the particular ATM you went to was temporarily offline or the bank's system went down temporarily. If it had been a balance issue, you would've gotten a different kind of message. Did you press the correct type of account when requesting the balance? Some people choose "savings" when they only have a "checking," or vice versa and they will get that "invalid acct" message. I do work in a bank... Is there an automated telephone banking system at your bank? Or do you have online banking? Both are good backup options. Hope the mystery gets cleared up soon!
I did go to 2 different atms just to be sure the first one was not broken. The first atm was at the actual bank but they were closed so I couldn't go in. I made sure I hit checking. I did more than once at both atms. I just don't know why it would be saying that. Its pay day and I feel like I have no money now which is some bs if I do say so myself. But I will just go in tomorrow nice and calm and try to figure everything out. Unless some how my ex did something to my account but I don't know how he could do that since I got the account after I left him 2 years ago and he doesn't even know the account numbers. Bah! Now I am just being paranoid! 
It's time to go to bed and have tomorrow come already! Thank you for your help and suggestions!
I had worked with bank processing for over 15 years before I quit to raise my children.
Look at the back of your card. There is a black magnetic strip. Does is look like it has been scratched or some oilly residue on it? Sometimes if the magnetic strip can not be read, then it will give false reads. The machine may not be able to read the strip. Or there maybe a problem with that ATM magnetic strip reader.
I've been in banking for about 2 and a half years now, and from my experience your card is either demagnetized, or the bank's network was down for whatever period of time.
no
The mystery is solved! For the entire weekend no one will be able to get their account balance through the atm because they are merging with another company. Phew! I feel so much better now, it would have been nice for them to let their customers know this ahead of time!
They usually don't let the customers know of systems merging. Sometimes when two systems merge, you have duplicate account numbers. Customer A from Bank A has the same account number as Customer B from Bank B. If the system merging creates too many duplicate accounts, then the bank usually goes to the previous night processing and do a restore. Then they have to do a reprocess after the duplicates are fixed. Most banks and companies (if they smart) will do this over a three day weekend to give them more time to fix any problems. Perferably not at month end.
Original Post by dlbrown1020:
They usually don't let the customers know of systems merging. Sometimes when two systems merge, you have duplicate account numbers. Customer A from Bank A has the same account number as Customer B from Bank B. If the system merging creates too many duplicate accounts, then the bank usually goes to the previous night processing and do a restore. Then they have to do a reprocess after the duplicates are fixed. Most banks and companies (if they smart) will do this over a three day weekend to give them more time to fix any problems. Perferably not at month end.
Banks don't think about that kind of thing, unfortunately. The credit union I work for is doing an ATM systems upgrade which begins at the end of a month. They just do it as soon as they can whenever they can. *shrug* I'm not defending it because I think it's stupid, but there's not much that can be done, unfortunately.
