Using a foreign card at a local ATM

[Sorry if this topic has already been brought up]

Do you guys find that American ATMs actually accept foreign bank cards? Has an ATM ever swallowed one of your international cards, and how did you get it back? And just for the record, has anyone dealt with this happening to a Canadian card specifically?

***

So, there I was today, enjoying a beautiful sunny day, deciding to grab some cash from a Bank of America ATM in San Diego. I slide my Canadian VISA debit card in, and instead of asking for my PIN, the machine just stares at me and says, "Please insert your card." Long story short: the card was swallowedi>.
I kept hitting the "cancel" button, but nothing. Zero luck.

I head into the Walmart store where the ATM is located, and the clerk there gives me this total "not my problem" look. She tells me they aren't responsible for outside ATMs and there’s absolutely nothing she can do. I was honestly stunned by the attitude. I told her:
- "But I need my card. Who is actually in charge of opening these machines?"
- "There's a specific department that handles that once a week. Your best bet is to go to the Federal Reserve and tell them what happened; they'll get it back to you."
- "Which day? Because I'm heading back to San Bernardino soon."
- "Usually Friday, but sometimes other days. They should be coming tomorrow."
- "And why can't I just pick it up here once the service crew opens the machine?"
She goes to talk to her manager, who basically just waves me off, and comes back with:
- "We aren't responsible for those cards."
- "Fine, can you please just give me the number for the Fed so I can call them? I don't have any data on my phone to look it up."
- "I can't. I don't have time to go looking up numbers for you."
I just stood there giving her a massive "Are you kidding me?" look. Finally, she sighs, grabs a notepad, calls some friend, and gets the name of a guy at the Fed.
- "There, that's the guy. He'll definitely get it back to you."

Not really buying her answer, I head home, find the actual number in the directory, and explain the situation. The guy on the line sounds genuinely confused:
- "The Federal Reserve doesn't handle ATMs located next to retail branches, nor would bank cards ever be sent to us. Sorry."

I call that "not my problem" clerk back at the San Bernardino branch and tell her what he said, but she just repeats the same nonsense.

After about 15 calls to various different numbers, we finally get an answer: apparently, a security firm from San Diego handles it. They supposedly leave swallowed cards at the bank, then send them back to St. Louis to be processed and voided. And the kicker? They won't even be doing that until Wednesday, not tomorrow.

***

I've run into this so many times—how American service workers love passing the buck to some other agency or department. It’s like they just woke up on the wrong side of the bed or decided to take their bad mood out on the customers. Why didn't they teach us in school that the customer comes first? That regardless of how crappy your day is, you're supposed to be polite in a professional setting?

I'm closing my Bank of America account after this. Paying a $3.25 monthly fee for an account I only use a couple of times a year isn't worth the headache.

Instead of enjoying my trip, I spent two hours playing "Who and when opens the ATM so I can get my card?" Honestly, I used to find these kinds of puzzles fun when I was a kid, but now that I actually want to spend my precious vacation time with my family, I'm officially over it.

I don't see what being an international card has to do with anything; any 😕
would have been swallowed up. And let's be real, that ATM isn't owned by Walmart, so they aren't responsible for this.

Charles Ramos7 said:I don't see what being an international card has to do with anything; any 😕
would have been swallowed up. And let's be real, that ATM isn't owned by Walmart, so they aren't responsible for this.

The whole "international" thing matters because the recovery process is a total nightmare—you won't get your money back anytime soon, and you need it right now. Plus, if the screen explicitly says it accepts VISA and yours was a VISA, there’s no excuse for it to just eat the card two seconds in without even asking for a PIN. Even their own manager is acting shocked, which is hilarious.

How many times has this happened to tourists? If they can't handle basic English, they're basically stranded without a card, especially when the staff barely speaks it either.

If the process is that slow, you won't even have your American card in hand by then, which defeats the whole purpose.

btw, I use my foreign card all the time (it’s not Canadian, and I don't use it at Bank of America ATMs), but I've never run into an issue. Honestly, I think this is just a broken ATM rather than some weird glitch where it only accepts local cards.

It’s just bad form to tell a cashier she doesn't need to worry about it—especially when she went to check with her manager and then used a private channel to track down a number from Goldman Sachs. She could have easily flagged you, since Walmart (and everywhere else that hosts ATMs) has absolutely nothing to do with them 😉

George Lewis9 said:It’s just bad form to tell a cashier she doesn't need to worry about it—especially when she went to check with her manager and then used a private channel to track down a number from Goldman Sachs. She could have easily flagged you, since Walmart (and everywhere else that hosts ATMs) has absolutely nothing to do with them 😉

I'm not talking about Walmart as a whole center, but rather the Bank of America branch located inside the Mall of America. Basically, the inquiry was made right there at the bank, and it was handled by the lady working the counter at Bank of America.

The real issue is that you simply can't get your card back. It’s one of those things you just don't encounter unless you live in a disorganized mess.
Is there actually an oversight body—maybe the Federal Reserve or some federal regulatory agency—where you can file a complaint because an ATM swallowed your card and the bank refuses to replace it?

Dealing with the bank is an absolute slog—you spend half the day calling various offices just to get information that is either wrong or half-baked. According to the bank, it will take about a week to get the card issued, which is frankly absurd.

Susan Evans3 said:I'm not talking about Walmart as a whole center, but rather the Bank of America branch located inside the Mall of America. Basically, the inquiry was made right there at the bank, and it was handled by the lady working the counter at Bank of America.

That teller should have resolved it herself—that's how things work in a semi-functional country—rather than forcing me to spend half the day calling some random clerk.

Sandra Williams70 said:The real issue is that you simply can't get your card back. It’s one of those things you just don't encounter unless you live in a disorganized mess.
Is there actually an oversight body—maybe the Federal Reserve or some federal regulatory agency—where you can file a complaint because an ATM swallowed your card and the bank refuses to replace it?

Dealing with the bank is an absolute slog—you spend half the day calling various offices just to get information that is either wrong or half-baked. According to the bank, it will take about a week to get the card issued, which is frankly absurd.

Sandra Williams70 said:That teller should have resolved it herself—that's how things work in a semi-functional country—rather than forcing me to spend half the day calling some random clerk.

Exactly. 😘

JPMorgan Chase would've had that sorted for us by the end of the day.

I actually managed to mess up and had my debit card swallowed by an ATM. Even though I went straight to the main branch in downtown Chicago—the exact spot where they supposedly process all the cards retrieved from local machines—they couldn't help me. Instead of just handing it over, they had to mail the card to a different branch, which meant I had to drive five hours just to pick it up.

Regarding that issue you're dealing with, trust me, things aren't any better when it comes to our cards here!

Of course, the bank lied—no card arrived today, and there’s no sign of one coming anytime soon. Absolute idiots. The Federal Reserve couldn't care less; apparently, they're powerless to intervene.