The cash machine has just swallowed my debit card even though I paid in £5500 7 days ago.?

It could be down to you mistyping in your pin, or possible transactions the bank think are fraudulent (but may be perfectly legit). Alternatively, they could have mislaid your money by losing your cheque if you paid that way (happened to me before!)

With regards to the bank charges, you can claim these back for the last 6 years, and if you have £600 its well worth doing.

Take a look at my site below, which has detailed step by step guides to claiming your bank charges back, and the site has help many people claim back thousands from a range of banks and building socities. It also has the latest bank charge news and developments, and forums for one to one help and support.

The site is free to use!

there are a few possible reasons why ur card was swallowed.

a. the atm malfunctioned (atms are updated daily, if your card is in there at the time it can either spit it back out for no reason or keep it)

b. the card was cancelled before the money was paid in (depending on how u paid the money)

c. how did u pay the card off? u should be aware that if this is a CREDIT card and not a DEBIT card we are talking about a credit card takes 6 days to clear.

if its a debit did you pay cash? cash is an instant transaction. but if you paid by cheque please note that cheques are NEVER guaranteed, neither are electronic transfers (CHAPS) the cheque cycle ranges from 5-sometimes 8 days if it is between companies. the only way u will find out what happened is if you contact your bank. Your card was swallowed by the atm so you need to contact your bank anyway!

d. your card could have been stolen by the scam going on at the moment.

You would be better off calling the bank and asking for an explanation. Card may be retained by the bank if you broken the terms and condition applicable to your account. For example

1. Repeated unauthorised overdraft.

2. Fraudulent or suspicious activity (paying in a cheque written on the stolen account etc).

3. Card itself was reported as lost or stolen.

If they have any suspicion of illegal activities, your account may be closed with little or no warning.

Most of the time machines swallow cards because the machines themselves have malfunctioned. I used to work in the Lost & Stolen department of a call centre of a well known bank and the majority of cards that had to be stopped due to machines swallowing them had only been swallowed due to a malfunction in the machine.

You should call up and put a stop on the card as soon as you can - it means your new one will be with you quicker. They'll also be able to tell you if there was any particular reason for it being retained.

to correct an earlier poster, bank charges are not illegal. The banks are under scrutiny at the moment for the amount they charge for unauthorised over-draughts.

There has been a case in one of the lower courts where a customer tried to claim against his bank for excessive charging. The court ruled in the banks favour.

As the court was one of the lower courts it could not set a precedent in law. So the jury is still out.

There is not a lot you can do if you are not prepared to go into your bank for an explanation.

1. Would, Man In the Box, Again, and Rooster. 2. I'm not sure if Anthony Keidis is clean now, but I think he is. 3. Grunge. They were very influential along with the many other grunge bands in the 90's. 4. No way man, at least change the name of the band. While Jerry Cantrell is a GOD, no Layne, no Chains. Dave Grohl made another band after Kurt died and guess what? It's great! Had it stayed Nirvana it wouldn't be the same.

If your £600 overdrawn because of bank charges its not with their agreement. Just phone them

sorry to say this but if you have had bank charges then thats more ur fault than the banks

but also in defence the banks make lots of money from those who do not look after their finances properly

def speak to your bank and they can inform you better on whats happened

Well if you have that much in there,I wish I had swallowed it,only joking.Do you bank with Nat west,i think they have been having problems lately.Not a lot you can do until you have been able to talk to them and have a jolly good moan about it.

well they probably canceled your card when your account became overdrawn which could cause the machine to eat your card. You will probably have to talk to your bank and apply for a new card