How To Get Cash When You Lose Your ATM Card


It can happen to anybody: you stick your card into an ATM machine to make a withdrawal, only to be greeted by a strange whirring sound or error message. Congratulations: your card has just been eaten. This is annoying at the best of times, but it can swiftly turn into a disaster if you’re overseas or about to enter a long weekend. Here’s a quick tip to ensure you’ll never be short of cash.

Cash picture from Shutterstock

The solution is criminally obvious, but then, most good life hacks are: simply contact your bank today and tell them your card is damaged. They’ll promptly send out a new one free of charge, meaning you now have a backup card in case of an ATM mishap. The card number will be identical and the old card will continue to work.

You could also use the same trick with your EFTPOS card as a safeguard against it getting lost, although with the advent of PayWave and other instant payment methods, this probably isn’t such a swell idea. At the very least though, it means you’ll be able to quickly withdraw a fist-full of cash before cancelling the card.


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