Win A Samsung Galaxy S III

224 responses to “Win A Samsung Galaxy S III”

1. 

   Cheesus

   October 22, 2012

   I was buying a brand new car, had to obviously put down a deposit and ended up that on the same day money to pay for my loan was taken out and I was left with a nice negative balance of $5000. So after sitting with the car dealer for 4 hours I ended up with no new car and being made out to be some kind of time waster to them. Oh well.

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   1. 

      ozwrangler

      October 24, 2012

      Renting a DVD and buying a bottle of wine. Had 20 cents in wallet, insufficient to buy my child a ChuppaChup. Not a good look with paper bag tucked under arm in bottle shop.

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2. 

   bobsmob

   October 22, 2012

   When i was very little, i never knew money existed. I walked into Mcdonalds and ordered a 30c cone to my avail i got the cone for free!! I kept doing this until i was older i guess its embarrassing once you get older and they make you pay… when you can’t !

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3. 

   infek

   October 22, 2012

   I went into subway to buy a sub, as I got to the counter to pay for it, I realised I didn’t have my keycard. I then told the girl that I’d come back to pay her but I never ended up doing it because my keycard was at home and I didn’t wanna go that far, I ended up being banned.

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4. 

   andregasket

   October 22, 2012

   After spending a month fretting about it, our offer on a house was accepted. The big day came to pay our deposit, but somehow we messed up the account number and it didn’t go through!
   Luckily they laughed at us, but more than a heart-in-mouth moment!

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5. 

   Sam Herring

   October 22, 2012

   A few months ago, I took a girl I was quite interested in out too dinner. We ate, we drank, we had a fantastic time. Dinner went smoothly, I pulled out my wallet, paid for the night, and we headed back to her place.

   It might be worthwhile knowing that this was my last night in Brisbane before I would move out to a small country town about 800km away. I woke up at her place, said goodbyes and whatnot, and left, with the intention of heading to my place, and then the airport.

   Upon arriving at my home, the movers knocked on my door and required that I pay them, they’d just gotten the last of my stuff out of the house, and the first truck was arriving at my new home now.

   Somehow, the night had sapped my entire savings.

   Needless to say, the 8 burly men covered in hair and tattoos were not impressed, causing a massive argument, ending up with me missing my flight. Thankfully, I sorted out payment, but the only way I could get to this town in time to start my new job the day after my flight was due to leave, was too ride in the truck.

   With the men who I’d almost ripped off.

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6. 

   Mi

   October 22, 2012

   Recently my fiancée and I purchased our first house, and as a result we opened a joint bank account to make things easier. Our bank rep opened up the new account and attached it to the Cheque account on my existing bank card. I transferred all my money into the joint account as I no longer had a need for a personal/individual account. I went to fill up my car the next day and went to pay via cheque but it kept getting rejected. Apparently our bank rep didn’t set up the bank card connection right 🙁 I had to get one of my friends to drive over and pay for my fuel…. Very unhappy customer.

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7. 

   Jimothy

   October 22, 2012

   Awkward moment when you’ve successfully argued with your parents and finally won the right to pay for the dinner you have just had with them..only to get to the counter and have your card declined because work has once again mucked up the weekly pay.

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   1. 

      jacksonbison

      October 22, 2012

      Ha – I only did that last week too!

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8. 

   ricadam

   October 22, 2012

   I went to fuel up at a petrol station, full tank around $70 worth went in and then it dawned on me. my debit card was with my wife. desperate I called her at work to see if she could read out the numbers on the card to pay over the phone. As she works in a cafe she didn’t pick up.

   I fessed up to the cashier thinking “they will be sweet about it, I’ll just leave my drivers license here and come back and pay for it”. The guy looked at me, his mood changed and then gave me this leaflet stating in bold “If you do not pay within 30 mins of leaving the petrol station it will be considered stealing and the police will be notified”. My heart sank, knowing my wifes work was about 30 mins return trip away more in traffic.

   I started debating in my head what was worse, stealing or caught speeding/negligent driving or both! I started freaking out badly. Then the phone rang, it was my wife with the debit card and everything was sorted out. though needless to say I double check where my cards are when I leave as I dont not want to repeat that again.

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9. 

   Maria

   October 22, 2012

   I went to pay for petrol one night on the way home from work, and went in to pay with my new card. Knowing I ahd money in my account I swiped away…. only for it to not work. Something had happened and the new pin didnt work or the activation failed, and it declined… I held up the attendant at the servo (only having one person on) whilst I tried phoning the bank, to no avail and a huge line up of angry people behind me, in the end I had to call my Dad (as a 26 yr old) and get him to pay for it over the phone, all whist dealing with commentry from a very angry line of people behind me! How embarassment!

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   1. 

      ghostpsalm

      October 22, 2012

      There is something odd about the contracted form of this story; “my card was declined, so I held up the attendant…” You had my mind going for a little!

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10. 

    dtbell91

    October 22, 2012

    This happened just last week in fact (perfect timing!)

    My partner and I went to a cafe for lunch, we worked out that between the two of us, we had enough money in our wallets between the two of us (I had $10, partner had $20). I went up to order just as her phone rang and she walked out to answer it, I placed the order without thinking and then had to run out of the shop as soon I realised I didn’t have enough to chase my partner down the get the $20. Needless to say, the cashier looked very confused and I was most embarrassed!

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11. 

    jcleeland

    October 22, 2012

    When I was 19, my sister borrowed my car to drive about 100km north of Melbourne and go horse riding for the day. I received a call from her early that afternoon from a nearby hospital. She’d fallen off a horse and broken her arm. The horse riding place had taken her to the hospital and left her there, but the car was still at the farm. Could I get the car, drive to the hospital to pick her up and bring her home?

    Somehow I got myself out to the farm (a friend drove me), and he dropped me off and left. I jumped in the car and started driving towards the hospital. To my dismay, when I looked down at the fuel display, the car was sitting right on empty. There was no way I could get to the hospital. I pulled in to the next petrol station.

    I had no cash on me (in my hurry to help I’d left my wallet behind), I was in a country petrol station miles from home, and miles from the hospital. All I had was my filthy car, and whatever I could find in there. I went into the station and begged them for $5 of fuel. They refused. I offered them my Vince Jones’ Greatest Hits CD. They refused (in retrospect, not surprisingly). I was out of options.

    I explained that “my sister fell off a horse and is in a nearby hospital, and she didn’t put petrol in the car before she left, and now I’m trying to pick her up, and she has money and I promise to come back immediately to pay you back”. It doesn’t sound very convincing to me now either. It wasn’t convincing to the petrol station attendant who presumably gets people begging for fuel regularly, and no doubt far more interesting stories than mine.

    Thankfully a kind-hearted customer at the petrol station overheard my pleas and offered to pay for $5 of fuel. Which was enough to get me to the Seymour Base Hospital, pick up my sister and then fill the car with fuel (from her wallet).

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12. 

    shaunmoran

    October 22, 2012

    After going for a run with friends in twon I decided to fill the car petrol tank. Only to realise at the counter that I didnt bring my wallet with me (who does when going for a run!).

    The wife did not enjoy being woken up early to come to the petrol station to pay the bill!

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13. 

    i2

    October 22, 2012

    As a toddler, a not so responsible baby-sitter left the gate open while she had a nap on the couch. I left the house and made my way to the corner store where the shop keeper found me sitting on the floor in the confectionary isle helping my self to lollies and chocolates. The police where called to come and collect me and when they asked “where do you live little man?” I replied “with my Mummy and Daddy!” Eventually the babysitter called the police when she woke from her nap and I was returned home safely. The babysitter had to cop the bills for all the confectionary for me though! 😉

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14. 

    prologpanther

    October 22, 2012

    I put a 50% deposit down on a $1500 kayak, and returned a few days later to the shop to pick it up and pay the remainder. The second payment was rejected but neither me or the cashier picked it up, so off I went with my (now heavily discounted) kayak.

    I noticed the discrepancy on my bank statement a few days later so I returned to pay the difference; the cashier laughed at me that I would return and pay it, felt weird being embarrassed for doing the right thing!

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15. 

    Midon

    October 22, 2012

    After my trial exams in year 12 I invited a group of friends (around five) to go out to a cafe to celebrate the end of exams. Unfortunately halfway through the meal I realised that I didn’t bring my wallet and that the familier bulge in my pocket was my glasses (that I received a week before). I ended up asking the others to chip in but it was really embarrassing as I invited them out as a spur of the moment thing to begin with…

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16. 

    Mich

    October 22, 2012

    Filled my tank with 40 litres of petrol, went in to pay and found my keycard wasn’t working (I think my brain had changed the PIN I had been using for the last 3 years…). I was 18 at the time and didn’t have a credit card, so had to fill in a form agreeing for the petrol station to set the cops after me if I did not return within EXACTLY 24 hours and pay the ~$60. I had to borrow the cash from my Dad to go back and pay the next day, arriving late to work as a result of the petrol station’s odd opening times.
    I then had to apply for a new PIN for my keycard, and also quickly signed up for a low limit credit card for emergencies such as this!
    Typical of me… one of the few goods you can’t put back on the shelf…

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17. 

    d370n8

    October 22, 2012

    My mate had asked me if I wanted to go to Soundwave Festival a few years back and he was going to buy the tickets and for me to pay him back. Months went on and I just kept forgetting to pay him… a week before the festival he asked me if I had the money (which unfortunately I didn’t) but I said to him that I’d pay him the week after and he said thats alright. All my mates went in, and I was last. When my ticket was scanned they said that my ticket was fake, and I said how could it be?!?! My mate paid for these tickets!

    Well the bastard had photocopied his ticket and altered it to have my name and DOB on it, so I didn’t even get in. Safe to say we’re not mates anymore.

    Moral of the story: Always pay your debts!

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18. 

    Casey Gould

    October 22, 2012

    I was on a date at a restaurant and went to pay with my card, but it wouldn’t go through. Rather than making my date pay, I knew there was an ATM down the road so I quickly ran down the road to get some cash. I was running so i didn’t keep her waiting, but on the way back my belt broke and when I went to pay my pants fell down. Yep, pants down.

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    1. 

       samsonation

       October 22, 2012

       winner

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19. 

    pprime

    October 22, 2012

    When I was about 10, my pop asked me to go to the shop and buy him some milk and bread, and put some change on the table for me to take (It was only about 4 doors up the road in a safe neighborhood). When I got to the counter to pay for the goods I realised I left the money on the table so I tried to pay with Connect-4 tokens. The man at the shop yelled at me and I walked home sobbing.

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20. 

    eddc91

    October 22, 2012

    I went to the Star casino with my last $50 for the week, i played for about and hour and ending up walking out with $90. Anyway, when i went back to my car, i found a parking ticket for $98. I had to wait a few days until i got paid to front that extra $8.

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21. 

    jhorna

    October 22, 2012

    My friends and I were going to karaoke for a birthday celebration and when I arrived I realised I had left my debit card at home (due to leaving it next to my computer after online shopping). I couldn’t pay for the night but one of my friends decided to help me out by paying for me, on the condition that I would sing any song he wanted when he asked for it.

    A night of singing songs at another’s will is bad enough, but having to sing ‘I Touch Myself’ by the Divinyls for the group next door without my shirt on was the worst. I have never forgotten my debit card since.

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    1. 

       jase

       October 24, 2012

       That will be hard to beat

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22. 

    serafis

    October 22, 2012

    It was my mothers birthday and I had splashed out and bought her a $60 bottle of alcohol with the last of my cash as I had just lost my job. I had a party to attend that night and all I had on me was that bottle. I ended up taking the bottle and getting pretty hammered. I awoke the next morning to remember that I had to attend my mother’s birthday lunch and give her a gift I raced down to the local shops and grabbed a block of chocolate upon reaching the register I remembered that I had no cash I asked if I could pay it off next time I was there (I visit there frequently) they said no. I told them my story and they just laughed and told me “it’s your own fault”.

    I was out of options I reached the party with the empty bottle enclosed in wrapping paper and filled with water as I walked in the door I dropped the bottle and it shattered. My auntie was nice enough to give me $10 to go and get mum a lock of chocolate and a card.

    I’m a horrible son.

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23. 

    Kman

    October 22, 2012

    My university (UNSW) has an amazing Oktoberfest party every year, and the lines are notoriously long for tickets. They often sell out within a couple of days. My friend and I had camped out since 6am to get a good spot in the line. And boyyyy was it a long wait! I was hardly awake during the whole ordeal and I was just counting down the hours until the ticket booth opened up. By around 9am, the lines were massive! Not even exaggerating, it was about 300m long and it was by no means a single-file; the line was about 7 people wide all throughout the 300m.

    FINALLY after 4 of the longest hours ever, we got to the front of the line and there must have been a good 500-600 people behind us still. I got out my wallet and handed the checkout girl my card and she said with the most deadpan face: “Um we don’t accept Medicare sorry…”. I was ready to implode. I forgot to transfer my keycard over when I was changing wallets the night before! It was so embarrassing.

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24. 

    blairsingh

    October 22, 2012

    I once went to McDonald’s (yeah pretty funny right) I asked for two soft serves, cause I’m that cool. The total came to $1 and I said ‘what happened to my change?’ and the worker said, Amercia has been saying that for the last five years. I did a seewhatyoudidthere face and he said you know what its on the house, and I said the white house?? and we both had a good laugh. We are now friends.

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25. 

    seaohh

    October 22, 2012

    I had been tossing up the idea of buying a new laptop for months and happened to be walking past a store that had one of the options I was tossing up. Upon looking and talking to the salesman, he informed me of a sale, a few phone calls and lengthy discussions about specs and usability and I had decided that I wanted to buy this particular laptop! So I finished what I had originally come to the shops for, super excited about the new shiny purchase, convinced the salesman to throw in a few extras! Winning! Swiped my card….declined….a quick calculation revealed i was $45 short… no worries! I can transfer money on my phone……phone dead….no local bank that I could transfer money with..shops were closing…mid week public holiday…..NOOOOOOoo…. longest 2 days ever…..

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26. 

    par3000

    October 22, 2012

    It was only after he arrived in my hotel room did I discover he was a cash only rent boy…..

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27. 

    ameel

    October 22, 2012

    We were moving apartments over the Christmas holidays a few years ago and, due to a communications mix-up, the person with the cash for the removalists was back at the old place without a car. The removalists didn’t have a mobile EFTPOS machine and the longer they waited the more it was costing us so I had to hop into their truck and get them to drive me to the nearest pub on the way back to their depot (no bank branch nearby) so I could pay them!

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28. 

    virus__

    October 22, 2012

    A couple of years back my mate offered me a brand new Razer mamba at half RRP, his initial one died and he got a warranty claim on it and offered me the brand new replacement, I said sure I needed a new mouse and had a job which meant I could afford it, told him i’d pay him on Friday which was pay day or so I thought, the very next day after getting the mouse I get a call from work saying I don’t have a job anymore, which meant no shifts that week which meant no pay day Friday which also meant no money for my mate. Still to this day i’ve only p[aid him back about 90% of what I owe him due to no damn job still. it’s always been my mission to pay him back for it but whenever I come in contact with money I always need to fix something or replace something that is broken etc..

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29. 

    shaneric

    October 22, 2012

    First time in Japan – very first night. It was late and my friend and I went to a noodle place in Osaka to eat, the only thing open for food near the hotel. We each pointed to a dish on the menu and ate it all up, delicious! The last few customers were leaving and the owners were starting to close up. We asked for the bill and gestured to pay with card. No go. Cash only. We had no local currency and no one there spoke English. I pulled out the dictionary to find the right words to ask for an ATM or another way to pay. My friend ran around the area looking for cash whilst I sat smiling awkwardly at the owners. There wasn’t anything we could do. We had no luck with an ATM and the kind owners gestured not to worry and that it was all OK. We felt extremely bad and left without paying. Went by the next morning and slipped some cash under the door. Lesson learnt for next time!

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30. 

    jacksonbison

    October 22, 2012

    When I was about 15 or 16, I was buying a last minute present for a friend (with cash, as it was before I owned any plastic), and I turned up exactly 5 cents short. You’d think the shop keeper might have given me a break; but no, so I had to go out on the streets begging people for 5 cents.

    Most people just looked at me like I was some kind of idiot, until one guy finally thrust $1.50 into my hands, along with the comment “are you freaking serious?”, and continued to laugh at me as I tried to explain my petty situation, and hand him most of his change back.

    Finally returning to the shop 20min later with a shiny 5 cent coin was probably the hardest I’ve ever worked in my entire life!

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31. 

    jake_d

    October 22, 2012

    Mine is also petrol station related. I was a scabby uni student. It was pay day and I wasn’t sure if my pay had cleared yet,. I knew I had at least $10 in my account, so I only put $10 worth of petrol in. I was wrong.
    I convinced the attendant to take my wallet and $50 nokia as a deposit while I drove home to collect my coin jar to make payment. I then paid in silver coins.

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    1. 

       jake_d

       October 22, 2012

       Just noticed s bunch of people including their shitty/old/broken phones in the story. I only mentioned mine to set the timeline, i think it was 2002 or something like that.

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32. 

    dylannelson94

    October 22, 2012

    I went to give my 8 year old cousin some money for his birthday, and totally forgot to get money out the bank, so when I went to give him the money I opened my wallet and he saw that it was empty :/

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33. 

    Sean

    October 22, 2012

    Decided to splurge and actually fill up the car with fuel rather than the standard $5.78 fill of change I found in the dashboard.

    Upon trying to pay, their EFTPOS machine wouldn’t accept my card. Six tries later and some gentle abuse from myself, I walked the 10 minutes (had to leave the car in place) to a hole in the wall and get cash.

    It was then I realized I’d been using the wrong PIN. Whoops… Sheepishly returned, paid, and haven’t been back to the servo for months 🙂

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34. 

    Tony

    October 22, 2012

    Me and a mate had gone out for a coffe and some food. When we had finished, my mate said he had to put this one on me, but I refused as I had not bought my wallet. Within the next few seconds, we had both discovered that not one of us had bought our wallets!!! We tried to promise the waiter but he wasn’t swayed by our pleas. Eventually we had to leave our phones (if only we had the ANZ thing!!!) with the waiter and run back to our wallets.

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35. 

    ghostpsalm

    October 22, 2012

    I was moving from Sydney to Melbourne with with the telecommunications company I was working for. I decided I wanted to make a road-trip with my wife, so I offered to drive the company car fully loaded to the new depot in Melbourne.

    After a magical week-long stay in the Snowies—chaining the car to a tree to ensure no wood elves would take the precious car or anything in it—my wife and I were feeling refreshed. We had spent the week, along with some friends, singing songs, playing card games and other such merry-making; in the woods, with some elves (the dark kind from Nordic folklore, who like magic, hence my concern for the “telecommunications” gear!). I had done such an amazing job planning the whole endeavor so we could afford such a trip, the Snowy Mountains NP having added to the magic with some rather “magic” prices simply to drive along the road! Presently we were 10km from our “new life” on the way out of the woods.

    It was exciting. With a smile I thought to be responsible and fuel the car before beginning work in the morning, though I didn’t need the fuel. I stopped and refueled, but, alas, I could not pay. After a quick balance check I was $10 short, so I proceeded to scrounge around for some shrapnel, which came to $6 (or so) and only had the effect of making me look more like a desperado trying to weasel his way out of $4 at a petrol station. I was rather embarrassed. The magical week had ended it bitter disappointment. In the end I made an even more embarrassed call to my boss, who though was about to place me in a managerial position, graciously allowed me to use the work CC in my pocket… though newly out of the woods, it was an acute welcome to the jungle!

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36. 

    Hazell

    October 22, 2012

    Went on a fishing trip with three buddies to a remote beach up north a week ago, didnt get five minutes off paved road before we got well and truly bogged deep. No one around to help, and the furthest town was well over a nights walk away. Hooked up a winch to a tree, only to have the winch die after 2 seconds (only myself to blame there) Tow truck called, took four hours to arrive, but he had a mobile credit card machine, sweet! $150 for the de-bogging, went to swipe my card, but from the sand in my pockets, and rolling around on the ground trying to dig the wheels out, the card was totally unreadable. No worries I thought, Ill just transfer cash into his account from my phone, which the tow truck driver was fine with. Pulled out my phone with a sandy hand, lost grip, and tossed the Galaxy Nexus straight into the only puddle in a 5Km radius. Ended up giving the guy three cartons of beer and my new surf rod as payment. Awesome fishing trip, I loved that phone…. (Also, I REALLY need a new phone !!, PLEEEEEEEEZE LH 🙂 )

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37. 

    MTS

    October 22, 2012

    I was shopping at the local markets and found a bunch of old consoles, sega mega drive and NES with duck hunt and the light gun, the mother lode of retro gaming, I wanted it! The guy selling it too much for it, I try and talk him down, after bit of back and forth we settle on what I think is a fair price. so I go to pay, take out my wallet nothing in there but lint, ask the guy can he hold the stuff for me says ‘be quick’ so I run around trying to find the nearest ATM, find one not too far away, slam my card in take out what ever is left in my account, grab my receipt and leave. I get about half way back to the stall before I realised in my rushing I hadn’t grabbed the money turn around and needless to say it wasn’t there when I got back, wasn’t able to get what I wanted and was out the 60 bucks I had withdrawn.

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38. 

    JR

    October 22, 2012

    When I first arrived in Australia as a kid and still learning English, I saw a McDonald’s advertisement on TV promoting $1 Big Mac burgers. “What I steal!!”.. I thought. After convincing my dad to drive my brother and I to the nearest McDonald’s, we saw the big $1 signs all over the store and I promptly ordered 2 Big Macs only to be asked to pay something a lot more than $2. My English was only up to the level of “I’m fine thanks and you?” as a response.. so we barely scraped together all the small change in our pockets and returned home feeling totally robbed. We didn’t even tell our dad in thinking that he’d tell us off for paying more than we had to. We made sure we savoured the burger to its fullest, right down to the lettuce droppings and every single sesame seed on that bun to make up for our loss.

    For a long time, we didn’t speak about it.. and then, many years later, I saw the same advertisement on TV. “$1 from every Big Mac sold will go to Ronald McDonald House. Happy McHappy Day.”

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    1. 

       paaj

       October 22, 2012

       Hahaha – this made me crack up!

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39. 

    Stuart

    October 22, 2012

    I was moving back to Australia from a semester of study abroad and got to the airport with my massive overstuffed case ready to check-in. My bag ended up being overweight (which didn’t surprise me as I’d gathered a lot of souvenirs in six months) and I had stupidly packed my wallet in my case, so before being able to pay the overweight baggage fee, I had to empty almost my whole case in the check-in lounge, including all my underwear etc to dig out my wallet, then hastily repack it, jumping on it to squash everything in

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40. 

    darkwing

    October 22, 2012

    After taking my baby son for his swimming lesson, I was hungry and told the wife to go home with him while I had some food. I even kindly ordered something quick for the wife and the father-in-law (who came to watch the lesson) and they went off home.

    When my order finally arrived and I went to pay, I remembered that I was in my board shorts and only had my car keys! I had to embarrassingly excuse myself while the staff were probably thinking “where the hell did he expect to keep his wallet?”. I managed to call my wife to come back and pay up for the food. On top of that, I had to wait and had to eat my food cold! FML!

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41. 

    Bumblebee_Tuna

    October 22, 2012

    Purchasing a pack of condoms from my small town grocery shop, I was 90 cents short (I read the wrong price at the shelf). Luckily the nice old lady let me off!

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    1. 

       jake_d

       October 22, 2012

       let you off or got you off…?

       Yeah, that’s probably inappropriate and not as funny as it was in my head.

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       1. 

          bumblebee_tuna

          October 23, 2012

          Let me off, lucky for me!

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42. 

    aar0n

    October 22, 2012

    Couple of weeks ago I went to take this girl out for dinner. Decided I would try this new local restaurant that just opened north-west of Sydney. It was a nice secluded Middle Eastern/Moroccan restaurant, so it was good to get away from the regular restaurants. The night went smoothly! As I got up to pay for our dinner, little did I know the restaurant did not have it’s EFTPOS working! (Must of missed the sign). I stood there looking completely clueless, the nearest ATM was about 5km away! My date didn’t have any cash either, so the only thing to do is to drive to an ATM and withdraw money. So I left my date there and got into the car and drove a good 5km to the nearest ATM.

    Most embrassing night, What a way to end a good date. Funnily enough, she asked me last week to go back and eat at that same place! :S

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43. 

    w0lfpawz

    October 22, 2012

    About a year or two ago, I was returning from my brother’s house that lived about 140k’s away, and noticed I needed my fuel as my little yellow warning light was on, so I pulled over and put $40 in as you normally do… I got to the counter to pay, only to realise at that moment, I had left my wallet at my brother’s house.. I panicked, and explained the situation.. The person over the counter laughed, and said if I left my phone here (iPhone 3GS), I could go get my wallet come back and pay…

    Knowing I needed it, I agreed, handed over my phone, jumped in the car, and drove back to my brother’s house.. then drove back to the servo, as I reached the servo, my little yellow warning light was on again…. But I forget to put more fuel in (wanted to pay for the first lot) so I rush in to pay… only to have my card rejected…

    I asked to use my phone to check my account, and yes I had the money, but there was a problem with my card….damn it…. So I call up my house mate, and ask to borrow the money, he agreed, but said I had to come and get it..

    So off I rush again, with still no phone, I collect the money from my housemate… and start to drive back… running out of fuel a few minutes before the servo…
    I walked to the servo, called a mate to help me push my car to the servo and have him pay for some more fuel for me…..

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    1. 

       Adam F

       October 24, 2012

       Did you have a massive fuel leak or something?

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44. 

    Dr_Stef

    October 22, 2012

    I was about 14, It was in countryside, border of Germany and Belgium. I really needed to go to the toilet and it was Sunday. Nothing is ever open on Sunday’s in rural Europe except for the bars and pubs. It was 10 o clock in the morning, I walk into the first available pub I see to find a toilet.
    The pub was buzzing with local German folk, just out of church and enjoying a beer.

    Minute I walked in, all the local men and the bartender from that village who already started drinking at 9am, turned around and looked at me. Even the music stopped as they turned around. It felt like I was Marty McFly who had just walked into the saloon in Back to the Future 3.
    I walked slowly up to the bar and asked in my most hideous German: “Wo sind die toiletten bitte?”

    .. Bartender replied in English: its over there dude! o__o.

    Local, old and drunken eyes followed me around the room to the toilet which was in the back.
    The whole was pub still silent. I did my business (and a nr2 after that encounter), washed the hands, and walked out of the toilet. I stumbled towards the door while the locals sipped their beer and looked at me in disgust. Then, when I opened the door and was about to leave,
    the bartender called me over and said:

    “That will be 50 cents”. >:(

    The pub was already silent, and the old long bearded guys at the bar had somehow become more silent and were judging my next move with angry eyes, sipping their German steins whilst staring.
    I looked into my wallet and all I had was 20 cents.

    “Is 20 cents enough?” I replied..

    The bartender grumbled something in German, and then all the old folks grumbled
    to each other and then to me in German. I believe it was something about the
    goddamn SS and the Luftwaffe back in 1943, and somehow brought it into the conversation
    of why I only had 20c in my wallet.

    It will have to do! ..he said sternly. Now please Leave!

    He took my 20c and all the old folks stared me out of the bar. Then as I left they all
    started happily talking and laughing socially again. To this day, my childhood dream
    of ever going to an Authentic German beer bar had been shattered by that embarrassing
    and awkward moment!

    (True Story)

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45. 

    Ryan

    October 22, 2012

    I had a crush on this cute girl for some time. I arranged for her to meet me at a cafe for coffee during my lunch break. I hoped to make a good impression. We had a good chat for about half an hour, but then I realised my break was over and I had to rush back to work to meet a client.

    Later that day, she contacted me to let me know I’d rushed out without paying, leaving her to foot the bill for both of us. Needless to say, we never dated.

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46. 

    bw81

    October 22, 2012

    First date; we went to a restaurant only for me to find out I’d left my wallet at home. “No worries, lets just go to yours and order a pizza” she said. Great! So I order the pizza and when they come to the door I don’t even have the $15 in my wallet. My date pays for the pizza, eats 6/8 pieces and leaves very quickly. It was good pizza.

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47. 

    Robert Nyan

    October 22, 2012

    A few years ago, I was walking around the city streets desperately trying to find a public toilet. I managed to find a electronic public toilet and hurriedly rushed in and sat down to do my thing. Once I was done, I stretched my arm out for some toilet paper. To my horror, there was no toilet paper, simply a machine requiring 50 cents for a couple sheets of toilet paper. I searched through my pockets for that 50 cents that would save me from potential public scrutiny and embarrassment. Unfortunately my desperate search turned up empty. With no money, stuck inside a electronic toilet, with no possible help, there was only one thing to do. Face embarrassment.

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48. 

    Paul

    October 22, 2012

    I was returning home from a night at the pub and only had enough money for either a taxi or a much-needed late-night kebab.

    In a moment of genius I decided that I could simply first buy a kebab, then use the ATM a little further down the road to obtain more money allowing me to get a taxi AS WELL as a kebab to ward off the munchies.

    So I bought my kebab and wandered down to the ATM. This was one of those ATMS with the clear plastic screen that came up to present the keypad once a card was inserted. I inserted the card and the plastic screen came up to allow me to enter my PIN. I put down my kebab and input the digits… unfortunately got it wrong as I was still a bit tipsy. I tried again but no joy, wrong again. Third and final time I put my numbers in again only to get it wrong AGAIN and have ATM keep my card, and drop down the plastic screen imprisoning my lovely partially eaten kebab!!

    So I ended up with no money, no ATM card, no kebab and unable to pay for a the taxi I so desperately wanted. My hour long walk home was full of remorse and tummy-rumbles. I just hope the next guy to use the ATM enjoyed my partially devoured kebab. It had extra chilli on it if I recall correctly. God I missed that kebab.

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49. 

    thomasdaley

    October 22, 2012

    After driving an hour and a half to pickup the lego I won on ebay I got to the door and discovered i’d left the money at home. To make matters worse when I dashed to the local ATM it was out of order, not knowing the area and how far it was to find another ATM. I called the seller and told them I’d see them NEXT weekend. I sent my wife in to get the Lego the week after as I was far too embarrassed.

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50. 

    helios

    October 22, 2012

    I was holidaying in the Whitsundays with my girlfriends family. I was walking around with just her younger cousin who was about 9 at the time, we walked into a souvenir store just to take a look. We walked around and saw some snow globes, i saw a sign saying anything broken must be paid for.

    I told the little guy not to touch anything just in case, as luck would have it i picked up a snow globe to show him and i somehow dropped it. The globe smashed all over the floor (they hold an annoyingly amount of glitter and water!), i looked up with a shocked look straight away at the shopkeeper. She already had started putting the purchase through! I then realised i had left my phone and wallet on our boat!

    I spent the next 10 minutes pleading with the shopkeeper when my girlfriend’s parents and uncle in. Im not sure if i was more embarrassed with the shopkeeper, the girlfriends family walking in, or telling the cousin not to touch anything while i proceed to drop a snow globe.

    Never leave without your wallet…and dont pick up breakables! hehe

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51. 

    dire_wolf

    October 22, 2012

    When I was a child I wanted a particularly expensive Bionicle set, the Muaka and Kane-Ra one. Because I could not afford it my Mum suggested we put it on lay-by and I could slowly pay it off. We went up to the counter with it, put it on lay-by and then the woman behind the counter asked me how much I wanted to put down on it.

    In my excitement I cried out “One Hundred Dollars!”, which was around the full price of the set (If I recall correctly it cost around $95). I quickly realised my mistake and stood there, face down and shuffling my feet for several seconds. I then looked up and spoke again, “I mean forty dollars”. I handed over the money and then quickly left the store with my Mum.

    Eventually I did manage to pay it all off and it was totally worth it. Bionicle’s were awesome.

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    1. 

       Daniel v

       October 24, 2012

       I once parked underground in Melbourne CBD, then upon exiting realised I had no funds. I slept in my car, eating a greasy pizza and having an awful sleep before awaking bleary-eyed to my wife with funds to ‘bail me out’ of that underground carpark of doom.

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52. 

    ninja_102

    October 22, 2012

    Once, I was at a petrol station where I put about $50-$60 worth of fuel in my car. I waited in the line to pay, shiny new bank card in hand for a while, and when my turn came up, the PIN that I used for the card wasn’t being accepted. I had just got the PIN that morning, so I guess it hadn’t quite been processed yet, or something. Long story short, I had to fill in a form that stated that I needed to pay within 12 hours, or it would be considered stealing. I went to the ATM around the corner instead to withdraw some cash and pay that way, but the ATM ended up eating my card, as the PIN again wasn’t being recognised, and to top it off, the bank branch that it was attached to was closed. That was an extremely stressful couple of hours for a guy with no other means of paying for his fuel!

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53. 

    nimara

    October 22, 2012

    The very first time i rode the public bus was when i about 5 years old and I was slightly sick. My mom couldn’t take me to the doctors, but I said i could go on my own, She was wary at first but i somehow convinced her i knew where the doctor was and which bus to take.
    Mom gave me 60 cents for the bus ride there and $20 for the prescription. She said i should use the change for the bus ride back.
    I managed to get there, and when it was time to pay, it was exactly $20. I had no change for the bus ride back. I just stood there, not knowing what to do. Fortunately the nurse noticed i was in despair, so she lent me a dollar and said i could pay her back later.
    I was so happy, i didn’t realize that i got on the bus heading the wrong direction. I ran up to the driver and told him my predicament. He was kind enough to let me get off without paying.
    I then managed to get on the right bus. When i reached my stop, i was so relieved, i forgot to get my change for the fare

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54. 

    bremnutso

    October 22, 2012

    When I was 22, times where tight, I had just moved out of home and Iived week to week. The low fuel light was burning a hole through the dashboard of my small Suzuki 4WD. I Checked my account balance during my lunch break and confirmed I had $20 dollars left in my account which would put enough fuel in the small tank to last me until pay day. On the way home from work I pulled into a large corporate fuel station to put $20.00 of fuel and went to pay, sure enough declined because of insufficient funds. My heart sank, I rang my partner who confirmed she withdrew the last $20 to buy lunch. Red faced I had to call my Dad and ask him to come and pay for my fuel. I had to sit and wait in the petrol station for an hour unil my Dad arrived. Most embarrassed I have ever been and I vowed never to let my self get in that situation again.

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55. 

    rhythmjhan

    October 22, 2012

    There was a time when I went to a club and was being picked up by this awesome, hot guy and he asked if I wanted a drink. Instead of checking if I had any cash or if I even brought my wallet with me, I offer to buy him the drink instead. Upon reaching, I ordered 2 drinks, one for me and one for him, the bartender asked for $18 and that’s when I realised I did not bring my wallet with me.

    My inner voice was telling me, “Oh girl, you’re gonna have a bad time… this is just so wrong, girl… you’re just gonna lose him.”

    How embarrassing, I felt so bad to even ask that guy to pay and I said that I’ll give it back to him when I get home as I planned to drive this guy home. After having a few drinks, we decided to drop by my place because it is on his way to his place and I hope to at least give back what I owed. Got into the house, took my wallet and NO CASH! HELL NO!

    I walked out to my car and apologised to him, “I’m sorry, I’ll treat you to a dinner next time…”
    I shall not even explain how embarrassing that was. Twice in a day.

    And I did treat him to a dinner after that and it was never mentioned again.

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56. 

    angus

    October 22, 2012

    I went to the school canteen one lunchtime and ordered my lunch. I thought I had money but checked my wallet and there was nothing in there and I left my debit card at home! So my friend said he would pay for me and he ordered and we then found out he had no money either. so we were frantically looking for someone to help us out so we would have something to eat when the teacher on duty came and paid for us! we paid her back and all was good 🙂

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57. 

    phreak

    October 22, 2012

    My wife went to pay for fuel at the servo one day and didnt have her card with her. The cashier would not allow me to read the card numbers over the phone. I had to leave work early travel all the way to the servo which was almost an hour away just to pay for something which could be done over the phone. My wife was about 7 months pregnant and was on her way to a doctors appointment. It was extremely embarrassing and infuriated the hell out of me that the servo would do that. She was also rather late for her appointment but luckily the doc was running really late that day and still was able to keep her appointment. It was in a dodgy suburb though but I still don’t think that was any excuse.

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58. 

    sanchez

    October 22, 2012

    The most awkward situation I have been in when needing to pay for something was when I was getting food for dinner and i was at the counter and everything had gone through and when it came to pay the money had fallen out of my pockets . The worst thing was when I had to go and put everything back on the shelves.

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59. 

    kanetreble

    October 22, 2012

    I was lucky enough to get a holiday to Hong Kong to catch up with my Mum last year, using a travel credit card to make most of my purchases. I was in the middle of a busy electronics store and had used about an hour of haggling to talk down the price of the original Galaxy Tab (much cheaper over there!) before deciding to make the purchase. Of course, the PIN I had memorised for the credit card happened to be the card I’d left in my bag. In the hotel. I had no idea what the PIN was for the current card and was forced to walk back several kilometres to the hotel to find the other one, before walking back.

    Suffice to say the staff, angry I had wasted an hour of their time, didn’t give me quite the deal I was originally looking forward to!

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60. 

    jordanlaa

    October 22, 2012

    Oh, this story I feel embarrassed every time I recall it but here goes…

    When I was about 7 years old I was in a cafe with my parents as they drank their coffee. I asked them if I could have a hot chocolate when we got home so my Mum gave me $5 to go into Woolworths to buy some milk. I went to the milk section and for about 5 minutes I stood awkwardly there reading all the labels to try find the “best” milk as every child would do. After considering every choice possible from skim to imported I eventually decided on an organic, locally collected, planet-saving milk. I walked to the counter feeling so proud that I was doing something for my local community and made sure to hold the milk the right way so that everyone could read the label as I walked! I finally got the express counter which had an old cashier, she beeped my single item of milk she told me “$6.50”, I honestly sunk, I only had the $5 from my Mum in my hand. Quickly I said “oops, I got the wrong one” with a faint, forced smile and shamefully walked back to the milk section to put the milk back then got the regular one that we buy. When I went to pay I waited in line for a long time so that I could avoid the same cashier and avoid the embarrassment. Since that day I always know how much money I have and mentally add up prices as I go shopping!

    Valid email address: [email protected]

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61. 

    Bala

    October 22, 2012

    Borrowed money from a friend to buy a laptop as I haven’t been paid yet and my only computer broke. My friend warned me that he needed the money by a certain date as he was going out on date then . It totally slipped my mind for a while till he called the day before the date and told me to transfer asap . Once again I was going to go home and pay him back , but got tied up with work and forgot. The day after I got a call from him ,he was angry with me as his prefect date was ruined when his card was declined. I transfer him the money right then but he was still angry with me =[ . Life of a student .

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62. 

    magneticzero

    October 22, 2012

    So its not as common anymore but once upon a time in Malaysia, when you went to a mall you often had to pay for toilet paper and entry to a toilet.

    Me being probably 11 at the time decided it was time for big boy me to go and find a toilet by myself. With no ability to speak proper Malay this guy at the entrance of the toilet just kept yelling and barking something at me. Obviously being so young and with my previous bravado slowly waning, I started to freak out and that made it even worse as I had to go “drop the kids off at the pool” , the guy kept pointing at coins and the sign which I could read was money but obviously being on holiday, away from my parents I hadn’t a cent on me.

    After a while of trying to communicate in the best sign language or rather body language I could that I had to go to the toilet, the guy eventually gave up and let me into the toilet and so there’s little old me thinking I’ve conquered some amazing feat as I strut into the toilet and into a cubicle so I can proceed fumigating the area.

    Of course after finally finishing my business and being extremely proud of myself I realize that there is no toilet paper because I haven’t bought any, and clearly at the door I didn’t know the appropriate dancing moves to let the guy outside know that I was running in to do a number two, nor the money to purchase any even if I did.

    So there’s me crying in the cubicle absolutely clueless as to what to do until eventually after what felt like the longest time an uncle eventually found me in the toilet and proceeded to purchase some tissues for me and even educate me on the fact that the tap/hose in the toilet is what some locals use to wipe up.

    So now I am mentally scarred and every time I visit the homeland I refuse to go anywhere without either a small pack of wet ones or pocket tissues or at least a few Ringgit to grant entry to the poop deck.

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63. 

    kevin8441

    October 22, 2012

    i was on my way home from Sydney to Gosford and fell asleep, it was 2am in the morning and there was no trains until 5am. woke my pregnant wife to see if she could transfer some money
    but the internet was down, i had no money with me. called a taxi in the middle of winter from Newcastle station to take me to Gosford station and he understood i didn’t have any money with me and didn’t charge the extra $20 to go to a atm. if i had go money then i could have transferred money from my high interest account and got me out of trouble

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64. 

    Christian Schocke

    October 22, 2012

    iPhone 4 release date, went all in hardcore mode with a couple mates to get stand in line in Chadstone. Got there at around 2 AM and stood in line. Was pretty keen on getting rid of my old Nokia N85 and get my first proper smartphone. Stood there in line for 6 hours. Time passes by until its finally time. For people who have done this, they will be familiar with how it goes. Apple employees come along and estimate how many phones they have and let you know if your chances are likely to get one. Anyway, we were within the expected ones to get it no probs; time goes on and end up being my turn ask for mine, shiny box in sight. Time to fork over the monies, declined… I was freaking out since I had the money but it was in my savings account….. But needed to transfer it first to the cheque account. Here I am telling them to hold on for a sec let me use on of the macs on the floor to transfer some money. Everybody is slamming the WiFi, internet is dead slow, have the guy standing behind me waiting, other customers waiting, etc etc. Transfer requires SMS confirmation. Already had gotten a Micro Sim to use on the iPhone, service changed, couldn’t get confirmation. Had to pretty much beg the guy to hold it get my mate to pay it for with his credit card…

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65. 

    Emily

    October 22, 2012

    I was in New Zealand, and I had not yet paid for anything yet with their currency, I was at a counter paying for the items I was purchasing, this took me a while because I had to read each coin to see what it was worth, the cashier got so annoyed she told me not to worry about paying for the rest.

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66. 

    dooleysean

    October 22, 2012

    On the day of my 21st birthday party I went to the bottle’o to buy a few cases of beer, managed to get them out of the fridge into a trolley and took it all the way to the checkout desk before having to apologise to the girl at the checkout that I didn’t have my wallet. Drove home and grabbed it, not so much of a big deal. The drama happened later on when I picked up a friend from the bus stop, realised that I had no petrol so went to the petrol station, filled up my car and got to the counter before realising I had again left my wallet at home. After a reasonable amount of being shouted at in Indian by the service station attendant my Dad had to come out and save the day. Twice in one day. The party was great however 🙂

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67. 

    greenius

    October 22, 2012

    So, I want to bribe this Angus Kidman fella but problem is, I don’t have any money to do it!

    Maybe some form of non-monetary bribery can be arranged 😉

    (definitely not going to win now)

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68. 

    Medi

    October 22, 2012

    Last year I changed job and on my last day at old job during luncht time I stood up and announced to those colleauges around me I like to treat you guys for lunch today! We went to a Italian pizza place in Lygon street. At pay time I went to counter to pay….Oh I dont want to reimagine that moment again I took my Myki instead of my CC…..it was such embarresing to go back to the table and ask one of them to pay! They were looking at me like they saw a zombie and I felt I was melting into ground!

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69. 

    Steve O’Hair

    October 22, 2012

    I took out a loan for a new car and as part of the sale the dealership was going to allow me to trade my old car towards the cost of the new one. I’d already spent $1200 repairing a blow headgasket on it and cleaned it up schmick. So since readying the old car I’d been catching the bus from southside to civic everyday for a few weeks to work. On the day I was to pick up the new car I got the loan cheque from the bank caught the bus home and drove the old car to the dealership which was a 30 second drive from my house.

    I went to turn into the driveway of the dealership and BAM!!!! SMASH!!!! F*%K!!! A mechanic who was test-driving a customer’s ol’ Datsun had ran straight up the back of my old car right out the front of the dealership! The car dealer came who had witnessed the whole accident came out to see the damage. We both new straight away that my old car was now a write-off. He took me into the office saying he’d try and work something out but I basically had to cover the difference. A few credit cards later and I managed to drive my new car home. Wifey was not happy at all. Now that had to be my worst stroke of luck.

    Steve O’Hair

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70. 

    chronophysicist

    October 22, 2012

    a while ago i was touring the Chinatown markets at night and decided to try the food at one of the stall there. Because of the number of people also waiting for the food the wait ended up getting a bit frustrating and I started making sarcastic remarks at the stall owner (in his native language no less) . When it came time for me to pay up I realise I was about 3 dollars short, I had to borrow from my friend who was with me who apparently had only 50cents. In the end I had to tell the owner to hold onto my food while I went to get some money from the car. I eventually managed to gather the 3 or so dollars from the car and return to the stall, only to realise the owner had just given away my food to the next guy in line. (guess it was his way of getting back at me)

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71. 

    kzd

    October 22, 2012

    It has been a couple years now (long before the time of the smartphone and the birth Justine Bieber), but I still remember the pain and suffering that I faced to this very day. It started out like any ordinary Friday night, but what were to follow would haunt me till the day I die. This a true story with a series of unfortunate events…

    One Friday night, I arrived early at a nearby bus station and heading to a local meeting spot for my
    friends. I realised I arrived way too early so I headed down the road to the local sushi train. This place was always busy whenever my parents drove by. Anyway, I figured I’d have a few sushi before I got my drink on. Luckily, I saw a promotion at the front saying $2 all sushi. I thought to myself “Yeehaww! My lucky day!”. And so I ate about 10 plates. The food was great, service was great, so I strolled merrily to the counter to pay up. 10 plates, thats about $20 right? BARGAIN! “That’s $42”. WTF! I argued, but apparently the promotion was only until 7PM. As I didn’t have enough money they threatened to call the cops and put me on their ‘Hall of Fame’ (a wall of shame for people that didn’t pay up). It was a busy night so they let me off, letting me pay only $30 and scrubbing the small sushi plates in the back for an hour. They actually do this like in the movies lol…Anyway, before I was let go, they showed me a printout of me eating sushi (happily) and stuck it on their Hall of Fame in front of everyone. Everyone inside saw the picture and watched as I walked out embarrassed and doing the walk of shame with my head down.

    I didn’t feel up to a night out anymore so I texted my friends on my brick (Nokia 3315) and headed home. On my way home, I played the epic Snake game while I waited at the station for the bus. I played until my phone died, and so I waited bored at the station. And then it struck. The almighty urge to do a Number 2. Fortunately, there was a local bus station toilet only a short walk away. Thank God! I thought. As I walked in I saw two cubicles then I smelt (or should i say tasted) a foul, foul smell. I had a 50/50 shot, so I chose one. DAMMIT! Wrong one, a brown explosion in that one. As I turned around in disgust a hobo like man came into the toilets. I was too embarrassed, to say anything or deny the smell but he already saw me exiting the bombed cubicle. Too embarrassed and needing to go desperately I took the second cubicle and locked the door. Looked down and BAM! What do ya know. Another brown explosion. It looked even worse than the other and just like the aftermath of Hiroshima, but I couldn’t face the hobo again. At that moment I just lost control and a little came out. I quickly sat down on the toilet, no time to flush (thank god the seat was clean) and released loudly like gunfire from Modern Warfare. I could hear the hobo man rambling in disgust for what felt like a good 30 minutes before kicking my door then storming out. During that time it felt like I was Will Smith sleeping in the public toilet in ‘Pursuit of Happyness’. I had a moment to myself and that’s when two things kept running through my head. #1: Damn you Sushi! Never having Sushi Again! #2: A hobo just got disgusted at me, thinking I destroyed two cubicles.. Could the night get any more embarrassing? But it did.

    Before I could make it out of the toilets, my friends entered. They must have just arrived at the bus station on their way out for the night! What were the odds. Thanks a lot Moses, I thought to myself like an angry Christian. Seriously. Like the hobo before them, I saw their surprise at seeing me there, and then I watched as their faces evolved like they just got down syndrome. Honestly, I saw these friends one more time, but we grew apart. Maybe this is why.. Anyway, I played it cool and luckily I was able to pretend the smell came from the other cubicle. I walked/ran out and said I had to run while they did their business. Ofcourse I didn’t want to stand (or sit) at the platform because there would be no ‘smell’ to cover up my ‘smell’, and so I hid in the bushes. Yep, I hid in the goddamn bushes like a freaking squirrel. Every hour the bus would pass, and every hour I’d be too embarrassed to take that bus because there were too many people. I had just enough money to make it home so I guess at least I didn’t have to beg for money like a hobo with ‘stained’ pants. Could have really used my mobile that time. And why there were so many people catching a bus at that time I will never know. And so I waited and waited until I fell asleep…in the bush, covered in crap.

    The next morning I woke up and thought that’s right that was all real, it wasn’t a nightmare. FML, I thought to myself. I did sh*t my pants and I really was waiting in the bush. Still feeling sick I visited the same toilets one more time before waiting at the platform for the earliest bus possible. It was very early on a Saturday and with one or two people around, I thought f**k it, I’m going home. So I finally caught a bus, luckily the bus driver and few people on board didn’t take too much notice of the smell but I did get an uncomfortable look or two. In that space of time I was embarrassed in front of the owners of the sushi train, their customers, the hobo, my close friends, the bus driver, the passengers and lastly my parents as I arrived home. All because I couldn’t pay for that damn sushi. I could’ve really used an S3 with ANZ goMoney at that time, I hope it never happens again.

    /end life story.

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72. 

    iordeb

    October 22, 2012

    i was in montreal last year for a work trip and i was having some of the their famous poutine at a popular local place. It was my last day in montreal and with the long flight back i wanted some a tasty lunch. I ate the cuisine with great joy and went up to the counter to pay only for me to realise i didn’t have the cash for it! no worries, i’ll pay with my card, but no luck there either they don’t accept cards! oh well, i’ll use the small ATM in the foyer…. except it didn’t take international cards!
    cue panic, after entertaining the thought to just do a runner i decided to do the good thing and explain to the frankophone waitress that i had no way of paying until i got to a proper ATM.
    i gave them my australian drivers license as bond and went in the search of an ATM. nobody seemed to know where the nearest one was! it was a good half an hour of running around looking for a bank before finding one! Montreal has a long way to go in terms of ATM availability! part of the trouble is that all their ATMs are in little rooms so that when it gets below freezing in winter you can get your cash out in relative warmth! this means that the ATM’s are not particularly visible from the outside!
    que running back to the restaurant, paying the cash and getting my licence back (the waitress seemed to have forgotten about me in the mean time) then rushing madly back to the hotel so that i can get my stuff and catch my flight!

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73. 

    spartan117au

    October 22, 2012

    So, the story takes place in grade 2.

    Me and a friend (whom i no longer know) were hanging out in front of our school, when someone who appeared to be at least 11 approached us. He said if we give him $10, he will give us a big pack of smarties. (Give me a break, it was grade 2 😛 ) So, my friend (who we will call jacob) asked me if i had any money. I opened up my bag and pulled out $7. Jacob did the same and found $2. Jacob pulled me back from the deal for a second and whispered “Listen. I only have $2, so we should fake that we actually have enough money.” I proceeded to say something along the lines of “You must be stupid because he will know we dont have enough.” By this time, a massive grin had spread across Jacob’s face. He then proceeds to snatch my money out of my hand, throw our money at the 11 year old, grab the bag of smarties and run. Jacob then left me. alone. with this angry kid. See, at the time, i thought that if we didnt have enough money and took the bag of lollies anyway, he would chase us and beat us down. So i ran screaming. like a little girl in front of the school. In front of lots of students. The boy didn’t follow, he just laughed alongside a handful of students who happened to be close at the scene of the dilemma.

    Probably the most awkward situation to experience and to this day, it makes me cringe thinking back on how humiliating it was. (Yes, i do literally remember everything that went down that faithful day.) So, that is my story 😛

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74. 

    iwill

    October 22, 2012

    When I was just 18, I was planning an extravagant “mature” valentines day with my girlfriend at the time. I had reserved a table at a bit of a posh restaurant and had booked a hotel room in the city just for the night. Being only 18, I didn’t have my own credit card so I had used my parent’s card for the online booking site. The plan was set, and I picked my girlfriend up in the afternoon, who had no idea of the night ahead. I told her a bit of a white lie as to where we were going, but when we finally arrived at the hotel I think she began to click. We grabbed our bags and headed to reception to check in. At first all was well until the man, who seemed more ancient than the beautiful old hotel we were in, behind the counter asked for a credit card so they could take an imprint to use as a bond. I discretely attempted to explain to him I didn’t have a credit card and that I was happy to pay cash, give my license or do whatever I could to avoid this situation. None of my offerings satisfied the man, and now there was a line building behind my girlfriend and me of other, more elderly, guests that seemed to only exponentially inflate my embarrassment. I continued to discuss options with this man, and then began to argue as his only solution was for my girlfriend and I to leave. He didn’t give in and other staff at the hotel supported his view. We left. My girlfriend found the whole thing pretty amusing, but I have never been more embarrassed.

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75. 

    hutchaye

    October 22, 2012

    My girlfriend and I were living in the UK for a couple of years and quite often would take advantage of cheap flights to various European cities for the weekend. We flew into Stockholm on a cheapskate Friday night flight, arriving late on a freezing Swedish winter evening. We jumped in a cab to our hotel in the middle of the old city, only to discover once we arrived that despite being a member of the EU, Sweden does not use the Euro as their currency (DUH! We’d taken a bunch of Euros out of an ATM at Gatwick – red faces all round). We then tried to use our bank cards to pay the cabbie via EFTPOS, but for some unknown reason the payment wouldn’t go through (we later discovered our bank had helpfully flagged the transaction as suspicious and blocked the payment). Our cabbie had limited English and was becoming increasingly suspicious that we weren’t going to pay him, on top of which we had to drive around the historic district of Gamla Stan looking for an ATM in the middle of the night for AGES (pro tip – there aren’t many!), driving up the fare even higher. To top it all off, our irate cabbie gave us a stern lecture in broken English about how we should take money out in local currency BEFORE visiting another country – we were beyond embarrassed when we finally managed to pay him and got dropped off at our hotel.

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76. 

    super_ace89

    October 22, 2012

    This happened at the end of a family dinner when the bill arrived. My dad and my uncle were both fighting over the bill as they both wanted to pay for the dinner. After about literally half an hour of arguing, eventually my dad won. So he went to go pay. But then he came back because he left his wallet at home! Awkward! So my uncle ended up paying instead. Would have been funny if he left his wallet at home too!

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77. 

    virtuallythere

    October 22, 2012

    This happened a while back now, nearly 2 or 3 years ago now. Anyway my son and I went shopping at Coles (a grocery supermarket), and after a while we had filled up our trolley with food and other stuff and started heading towards the checkout (this were it gets interesting), we roll up to the cashier and start unloading the groceries on the checkout. The total amount came to around $300 (it was a big shop). So then I go to pay for the food and I reach into my pocket….And theres nothing! I had left my wallet at home, so I told my son to run home and get it. So while he is gone I’m waiting there, trying not to look to suspicious. That didn’t work lol. Anyway half an hour later my son came back with my wallet and we payed and it was all good! (the shop assistant kept a watchful eye on me all the time)

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78. 

    deadfncat

    October 22, 2012

    Sitting in a restaurant with a girl I had liked for quite a few years. Bank card not working due to non cleared funds and she ended up having to pay with me acting fancy and trying to impress her at a nice place. Luckily she was a keeper and has stuck around for the past three years!

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79. 

    jauhari

    October 22, 2012

    Please sent Samsung Galaxy S3 Prices for me 😉

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80. 

    Jo

    October 22, 2012

    I was at the dentist waiting to have all four of my wisdom teeth taken out. I was 19 and had no private health insurance so it was going to cost a couple of thousand dollars. I was totally relying on my pay for that week being in my account but of all the weeks for work to stuff it up…I was already completely freaked out about going to the dentist so when my payment was declined and I realised I didn’t have enough money in my account I had massive breakdown in the reception area of the surgery and had to get my mum to pay for it (which I was determined not to do beforehand). Anyway, wisdom tooth removal did not go well, I hyperventilated and then stopped breathing so they had to stop halfway through…

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81. 

    Kloptops

    October 22, 2012

    I was 15 at the time, me and a friend decided to go into the city one Saturday to catch up for my birthday and to spend the cash I’d gotten. We took the train in with our parents dropping us off. We had a great day, when we arrived back to our station. We went across the road to ring from a pay phone for a lift from our parents. Since they’d be 20 mins, we went into the shop next door, got a drink and something to snack on. Went to pay for it when I realised I left my wallet next to the pay phone while I rang home. Raced over and it was gone… Luckily my friend spotted me the money for the food, but it really sucked losing my wallet with the rest of my birthday cash in it. 🙁

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82. 

    illogical

    October 22, 2012

    .

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83. 

    Desire

    October 22, 2012

    Went to a friend’s engagement party at the pub (of all places). I asked the bartender for a pint of Heineken, thinking that this is an open bar. Bartender then said that’ll be $10.00.
    I looked at him and pretended that I had to go to the Atm. Avoided him the whole night.

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84. 

    hyde

    October 22, 2012

    When I was younger I forgot which day I was getting tested for my P plate, so I thought it was just another regular driving lesson. I only had enough cash to pay for the lesson and when my driver instructor told me I freaked out. For whatever reason I didn’t even know you had to pay for the test lol (so young and ignorant). We had an hour to practice before the actual test and I was so flustered I couldn’t concentrate properly. I tried calling my sister to wire me money, but it takes longer than an hour for the transfer to happen so that didn’t work…
    In the end I failed my test and I owed my instructor money (it was so awkward when I had to ask him to pay for me). My sister brings this up once a year.

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85. 

    dlindaya

    October 22, 2012

    Bought a new pair of shoes from Footlocker and wanted to leave the store wearing them. About to pay and walk out, I realise I’ve left my wallet. Had to take the shoes off at the counter and left with no new shoes.

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86. 

    rollz

    October 22, 2012

    Honeymoon. 2 weeks of heaven in Tasmania. Planned meticulously.

    My brand new wife and I drove in the beautiful afternoon light to catch the overnight ferry to Tassie. Drove up to the booth and proudly presented the forms I had printed from the internet application I had filled out weeks earlier.

    Sorry son, this isn’t a receipt.

    You know that feeling of doom? The cold shiver of destiny grabbing you by the jewels?

    The “payment” was invalid. The bloody forms, credit details and whole dam box and dice I had filled out apparently was a waste of time. I had been required to print the stuff out and send it by mail as well.

    I freaked. Looked at my beloved helplessly. The man in the booth said if I ran to the booking office I may get lucky. So I ran. All the way through the ship, upstairs along decks to a lonely lady behind a window.

    Yes, I got 2 tickets – FOR 2 CRUISE SEATS. Not the the honeymoon cabin accommodation we had planned for. Last car on and that was pure luck. Spent our first night of our honeymoon wide awake on the shitty cruise seats. I am still married.

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87. 

    bcchgeneral

    October 22, 2012

    It was my first full time job, with a professional services firm. In my first week, my manager suggests we go out for lunch, and proceeds to take me to a swanky city restaurant. I look aghast at the menu, having not brought enough money to buy much more than garlic bread, while thinking about the homemade sandwiches I’d brought that day, still in the office fridge! After ordering the most measly item on the menu and feeling awkward through the whole meal, the manager pulls out the company credit card and pays for us both! Whoops, welcome to the world of corporate perks!

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88. 

    Thanh Ng

    October 22, 2012

    This was back in the days when Mcdonalds softserve was only 30c. Made the order then only to realize I had no money in my wallet, so I ended up paying for a 30 cent cone with eftpos. People behind me were quiet, the girl serving me was all quiet…I was quiet. awkward.

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89. 

    Felix

    October 22, 2012

    I was out with a new girlfriend and was asked by my parents if we wanted to go to dinner with them , I accepted and while on our way back from dinner i drank a blend of chilled coffee that didn’t agree with my stomach because of me being lactose intolerant this created a problem that made me gassy , by luck father made a quick stop at the supermarket so not to let my girlfriend know since I had ran out of money I tossed into my father’s shopping cart a bottle of something to cure my gas , suddenly as I was passing with my girlfriend near the checkout lane my father had picked up the mystery bottle that I had tossed in his cart and in a loud tone while holding the bottle in the air , sooo embarrasing yelled ” what’s this Gas X. ! Is this yours ? , there I was standing beside my girlfriend red in the face while my father is asking out loud is this your Gas X ? , So if would have not run out of money I could have ran inside the market alone and discreetly have paid for the Gas X gas pills without my girlfriend knowing and not going through that embarrassing moment , that was awful , I felt like all eyes were on me !

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90. 

    elairic

    October 22, 2012

    A couple of years ago I went to a bottle shop with some friends. I was quite tipsy at the time, so somehow i just walked out of the shop with a case of beer without paying. The checkout guy stopped me as i stepped out of the door and I quickly apologised.

    He then joked, “Phew, you scared the hell out of me…I thought you were about to do a runner!”

    I too laughed and said, “Hah don’t worry mate I’ve got some money for you here.”

    However, as I reached for my wallet I realised that I had left it at home. He raised an eyebrow and gave me a ‘so….?’ look. Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed…We exchanged a few awkward chuckles and I had to ask my friend to pay the guy!

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91. 

    lukeplunkets-nemesis

    October 22, 2012

    ME : Damn girl how do you get into that dress?
    GIRL : You can start by buying me a drink
    ME: /Reaches for wallet
    GUY: ARE YOU TALKING TO MY GIRL
    ME: I was just about to buy you a drink…
    GUY: AHH thats cool ill have a…
    ME: / REALIZES I DONT HAVE MY WALLET… LEGS IT.

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92. 

    aero2146

    October 22, 2012

    Couple of years ago, I took my GF on a date to a Italian restaurant. The day was pretty good and I was actually looking forward for this. we sat down in a small table next to the window and as always I told the lady to order. Well, as ladies always do she started ordering meals from the “expensive” side of the menu. The meals were placed right in front of us and we dug in. Just after we finish our extended course, I had this uncontrollable urge to got to the washroom.

    I knew that in a couple of minutes we were going to leave but I had to say “excuse me” and leave to the men’s room. While I was doing my business, a thought rushed into my mind that for the food she ordered I might not have enough money for it. I quickly reached out and got hold of my wallet and started to pry my wallet to see if I had the money. I took out two $20 bills from it, and I was glad, but not long after that it slipped and landed in the toilet itself. A loud screech of “Noooooooooooo…” came out of me as it was the only money I had.

    I had to a clue of what my action should be. I quickly zipped up and tried to think of something to get me out of this nightmare. I knew that I can’t let her pay, and the thought of “what would she do if I said this to her?’ tormented me. But to get these thought away i had no choice but to put my hand in there and get it myself. So, I folded my long sleeved shirt and took a quick gulp of breath and went for it. Within second I held the $20 bill in the tip of my fingers. I quickly went out and put it in the sink and turned on the tap. The funny thing was there was a guy next to me, trying to wash his hand, but my actions made that my hold an awkward expression in his face, with a “WTH” eyes.

    I couldn’t control my laughter by thinking what the man would think (I know I’m hopeless). I got the note and put it on the hand drier and I waited for minutes there. Quickly I dashed out placing the dry note back in my wallet. i returned back to the table and I was greeted with “What took so long?”. I mumbled what came to my mind, and waited for the waiter to bring the bill. She got up and said “Let’s go” but I reminded her that we didn’t pay yet.

    But she said, “You took some time there so I paid”. I was glad that I didn’t make someone touch that $20 note, but what she told me latter made me wonder like hell, she said “You can’t pay with wet money” and started laughing.

    Throughout the day I was killing myself to know how she knew what happened then i found out that the man who was next to me while I washed the note, was a friend of hers. That day was one of the most embarrassing days of my LIFE!!!

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93. 

    reganmarshall

    October 22, 2012

    I had a plan to take enough money out over a couple of days for my engagement ring. On the day I had planned to get the final bit of cash and the ring, I celebrated with a few friends before hand. The amount I took out at the pub put me over my daily withdrawal limit, almost missed the bank and the ring.

    In the end, everything turned out better than expected.

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94. 

    lh47

    October 22, 2012

    As many of you would know, some public toilets in China require payment before usage. As it happened, I found myself in a particular area where these facilities were the only option available. I also happened to have eaten some noodles that disagreed somewhat violently with my digestive system. Being out of the appropriate coins necessary, well…I had to resort to…alternative means of relief…

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95. 

    Irwin

    October 22, 2012

    Met up with a colleague in the gold coast and returning favors took him out to a flash restaurant and then told him to go for it. We did an 8 course meal with matching wines. Both delicious. As the night drew to a close I whipped out the only credit card I’d brought along to pay only to discover it was not one they accepted. My mate ended up paying for the dinner I’d taken him out for.

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96. 

    ordnance_ox

    October 22, 2012

    One day, when I was a little tacker, Mum took me into town to do some shopping. I was obsessed with cap guns, as any young bloke is, so I was obviously packin’ heat that fine summers day. As far as I can remember the particular piece I was carrying was somewhat similar to what Dirty Harry would carry. It was big, dark and mostly metal, with a checkered wooden handle and a cylinder which spun with that satisfying “tick tick tick”. These were the days before every toy gun had to be visibly plastic and have that stupid bright orange tip on the barrel. I had run out of caps and was getting tired of carrying it so I asked Mum if she could chuck it in her bag. We eventually rock up to the local news agency to pick up the paper and some milk and bread. Mum grabs the essentials while I toss some lollies up on the counter. Mum didn’t have any more money in her purse and so began to scrounge through her bag to find some loose change. As with any womans bag it was full of garbage, and so she began pulling things out and placing them on the counter. Purse, mirror, brush, BIG OL’ REVOLVER! The poor girl behind the counter nearly soiled herself, her eyes grew wide to the size of saucepans and she froze, not knowing how to deal with the situation: a seemingly normal woman, a boof-headed little kid anxious to get his lollies, and a gun which seemed real enough to her. Was this some strange Bonnie and adolescent Clyde scenario? Was my Mum crazy? Would she be held up and possibly killed over some sweets?

    Mum became aware of what was going on due to the “strange” reaction of the poor checkout chick who was rapidly glancing between Mum’s hands and the revolver perched upon the countertop amongst my lollies. “Its my sons!” she gasps. Mum tosses the pistol to me, grabs her shopping and my wrist, and hurriedly exits the store, leaving my strawberries and creams, chicos and packet of ‘Fads’ behind.

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97. 

    b0m8

    October 22, 2012

    Last semester, after my friend completed 80% of a group assignment (group being me + him), I thought I’d shout him a nice lunch worth about $20 each for my slack efforts in the assignment.

    Come to pay after eating , my card has only $6.45 left on it, and my phone just happens to decide to turn off from overheating, and my friend only equipped with an old faithful Nokia.

    So in one day, my friend is nice enough to let me take credit for half of an assignment he mainly completed, and after that he also pays ~$40 for lunch for the two of us.

    I’m such a terrible friend 😛

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98. 

    jessie

    October 22, 2012

    I was 18 and drove a beat up 1986 Ford Lazer. I was on my way home from work, it was a Wednesday before pay day and my car kept stuttering because I had because I was running on empty. I pulled into the servo and put $8 of petrol in (all I had in change and nothing on card!) and went inside to pay. There was a big line and when I finally got to the front… The cashier asked for $11 something and I went beetroot red, I realised I’d been looking at the litres going into the car and not the $ amount! I had NO other money but the cashier told me his til was out anyway and let me pay just the $8! These days I have a real job and can afford to put double digits worth of petrol into my car 🙂

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99. 

    Fred

    October 22, 2012

    While waiting in line to pay for a box of cereal and a gallon of milk, my ex girlfriend and her new husband are stand right behind me in line. The magnetic strip on my debit card refused to cooperate after several attempts. Her husband turns to her and said, “aren’t you glad you didn’t marry him!” Needless to say, they ended up paying for my items for me, but I’m sure he is still smiling about that moment right now.

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100. 

     ryryq

     October 22, 2012

     I go to see my doctor for a sore finger. His office is in a building with a paid car park, so leaving the car park, I stop at the booth to pay the lady for the parking, turns out I have no money in my wallet. So I promise the woman that I’ll be back the next day to pay, plus a little more for her troubles, as I have an appointment with my lawyer in the same building. She agrees.

     So the next day I go to see my lawyer, but as I enter, I stop by the booth to pay the parking lady, but instead a man is working, he looks trustworthy so I give him the money to give to her. Then I go up to my lawyers, we get into this massive argument over a script of mine she’d read and billed me for the time she spent reading and giving me notes on, even though I never asked her to do that. I mean seriously, it was a ridiculous amount of money too.

     I walk back to my car and the the parking lady from the day before accosts me about me not paying her back. I plead with her that I paid her coworker but she doesn’t believe me. She musn’t have started work yet. It gets to a point where she won’t leave me alone until I pay her, but all I have is a $20 note, so I give her that to get her off my back. Now she’s gotten about $25 bucks off me.

     So I go to drive out, approach the parking man from earlier and…I have no money, I gave my note to the parking woman. So I ask the man…scratch that, I BEG the man for the money I gave him earlier to pay him for that day’s parking, but he refuses. He doesn’t feel comfortable, since he didnt feel comfortable taking it in the first place. Then while I’m arguing with him, some ass starts beeping their horn behind me, and I look back to see that it’s my lawyer.

     I had no choice. I had to get out, walk up to her car and ask my lawyer that I’d just fired because I didn’t want to pay a $1000 bill for two dollars so that I can pay for parking.

     It’s a pretty amusing story and I always laugh at it, especially because it actually happened to Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sorry to waste your time.

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101. 

     Carey

     October 23, 2012

     I couldn’t pay a Ukranian prostitute who was blackmailing me because I asked her to dress up in a Polish school girl outfit and ride a pig that I had stolen from a local farmer screaming out ‘You are more attractive than Patrick Swayze!’

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102. 

     willd

     October 23, 2012

     When I was younger I went overseas. We were in a rather large church in France. I had gone to look for a toilet alone. I found one with a rather peculiar sign, being only english speaking, the only thing I was able to make out was a number “5” next to a symbol of Frances currency. I thought that i had to pay to use the bathroom, this was a problem being under 10, and having no money. It got to a point where i just couldn’t hold it anymore. Having wet myself, I made the horrible walk back to my parents. Having seen the state of my pants, my parents freaked out because we were so far from our hotel and a change of clothes. I had to sit through mass with wet pants, it’s probably why I’m an atheist.

     Our tour guide clarified that those signs basically said “it is good gesture to make a donation for the upkeep of the toilets.”

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103. 

     maxwilkie

     October 23, 2012

     A couple of years ago, I took my then-girlfriend out for a romantic dinner. I didn’t have a lot of money at the time, and made sure to check my bank balance beforehand so I didn’t overspend and cause the embarrasement of a declined debit card.

     The evening was going really well – beautiful food, great conversation. I’d been adding up all the items on the menu as we went to make sure I could afford the final bill. Of course it was all going to end in tears.

     The final bill was $2 more than my card could handle. My account in those days couldn’t overdraw, you see. No credit card or anything. I was perplexed until I realised, to my horror, that the bottle of water we’d received for the table at the beginning of the night wasn’t tap water as I’d assumed, but an $8 bottle of spring water.

     So: the solution. To my great embarrasement, I had to split the bill, and borrow a $2 coin off of my girlfriend (who was a little bemused by the whole experience). $2 cash, the rest on MasterCard. Moral of the story? Be upfront about how much cash you have, and that you may have to split a bill from time to time. It’s bizarrely mortifying to have to ask for a $2 coin to pay for dinner…

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104. 

     Freddy

     October 23, 2012

     My most embarrassing moment was when i didn’t have enough money to buy Galaxy S3
     Sad.. but true -.- .

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105. 

     icefest

     October 23, 2012

     When I was little, I was out shopping with my grandmother.

     Later, when she said I couldn’t have any chocolate because she had no money; I pointed to the bank and said: “You can buy more money over there!”

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106. 

     wisp

     October 23, 2012

     Now ANZ, Please bring this to Windows Phone also <3

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107. 

     dakers

     October 23, 2012

     My friends and I went out to celebrate a birthday by watching a movie. It turned out that I had bought too many snacks and didn’t have enough money to actually get into the movie so the birthday boy ended up shouting me. What’s worse, the movie was terrible so I was feeling extremely sheepish afterwards for getting him to shout me because I had spent so much on chips and drink.

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108. 

     Damonii Ayreborn

     October 23, 2012

     Once upon a time there was a 20 year old guy (aka me) who took a group of friends drinking after winning a ton of money at the casino. Now when we left the casino I had to transfer my winnings into a bank account because it was of a significant amount. I opened a tab at the bar gave them my debit card and we all drank the night away (as did several attractive women i was more then happy for us to shout drinks to) when it came time to pay they apparently swiped my card and it was denied. Based on my friends retelling of this story I was so drunk i was bragging about how much money was in the account and that they should swipe it again, once again it came up denied. They were kind enough to suggest i may have exceeded the daily limit and if i could simply show them on the ATM next to the bar that I had the amount i had bragged about that they would take a photocopy of my ID and have the debt settled at a later date when I had regained my faculties. I went ahead and checked my balance and it was next to zero.

     Here’s where the story gets really bad. The bar staff told my entire party that unless we could all pay the bill together we would have to wait for the police. My friends couldn’t afford the bill and one of them (lets call him J) panicked and tried to run. The stories of the fight are varied depending on the friends who tell it but in summary some of us escaped some of us didn’t, I was part of the latter group.

     So I spent the night (actually 2 nights since it was a Saturday) in the East Perth lock-up waiting on my bail hearing. When I was finally seen for the charges the Magistrate was made to believe that I instigated the fight. I ended up having to pay the bill for our party, damage costs, court fee’s and a fine.

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109. 

     jcmccrae

     October 23, 2012

     “No, looks it’s the First Date, and I as a MAN must pay, OKAY?! Okay! Okay…”

     …

     “”…My credit card’s run out, you have to pay.”

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110. 

     ashchongwc

     October 23, 2012

     I was buying groceries with my roommate one day…. Was assuring him that I brought enough cash to pay for the groceries. I was happily grabbing stuff left and right. We proceeded to pay for the goods we grabbed and at the precise moment, i reached for my wallet and it wasn’t there.. I looked at him and explained. He looked back giving me the ‘ OH NO YOU DIDN’T ‘ face. We ended up calling a friend to come loan us the cash for a bit. I must add at this moment, that he didn’t have any money or card on him either.. Fools .. both of us

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111. 

     rebello_cougar

     October 23, 2012

     So I was abroad on holiday in southern India with some close cousins and we were getting accustomed to the local cuisine. I remember a beautiful vegetarian restaurant which served curries on banana leaves and after our fill, we left. I made it half way home before I had to make a ‘break’ but the only clean bathroom had a sign ‘paying customers only’. I had no cash left so I borrowed my cousins last rupees. Thank the heavens. No better feeling. Until my cousin started dancing around. lol.

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112. 

     Josiah McCampbell

     October 23, 2012

     I was checking out at Walmart the other day and my debit card was declined several times. I stood there embarrassed as I realized that my account was almost empty. Then I had to get my Mom to come and pay for me… yeah, real embarrassing to have my mom pay for my new shoes!

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113. 

     dev

     October 23, 2012

     Weeks and weeks before tickets I wanted went on sale, I went to the bank and tried to organise a new account with the card I needed to pay online. I got a newbie staff member who screwed the whole process up beyond belief and failed to get in contact with me for ages to fix the mistake. I then desperately asked a friend if I could transfer them the money and get them to buy the tickets when they went on sale. I warned him when I would need to use the card so I got up early and made sure to reserve the best seats possible as soon as they went on sale, I was about to pay for them and asked him where his wallet was. After frantic searching it turned out he had left his wallet at work and we drove the 30 mins there in silence as I lost the amazing up front seats. I’m going to see the show this Friday and I am sure it will be great but I am still not over how I lost such awesome seats!

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114. 

     vxjimxv

     October 23, 2012

     I’ been talking to this girl for weeks,( who was completely out my league mind you) when i finally built up the courage to ask her out to dinner. I took her to this awesome and quite expensive sushi restaurant, We had a couple bottles of wine and the bill came to about $350 , when i went to go pay my card got the dreaded card read error , so i went outside to the ATM , still didnt work. so I told the chick the situation and she laughed saying she was broke and couldnt pay either. So long story short all my mates were out drinking and wouldnt come pay for it. so the girls parents ended up coming to the restaurant and paying for it. but yeah thats pretty much my worst 1st date story .

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115. 

     itsmeagain

     October 23, 2012

     Went down to put petrol in the car.Put $50 in the tank only to discover I had no wallet and only $20 cash on me..I had to leave my phone as collateral while i went and got some more cash.

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116. 

     Jacob Bellamy

     October 23, 2012

     I had just finished filling my car up, lent in my car and got my bank card.
     I stood back up and went to slide the card into my pocket and begin the short walk to the counter.
     Some amazingly miracle i managed to drop the card into the drain. Spent thirty minutes in peak hour filling up time trying to fish my card out of the drain.

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117. 

     geezerau

     October 23, 2012

     One night I went off to the gym to suffer through a spin class… Left the house, and stopped to fill up the car with petrol on the way. Our local petrol station has those pumps that you can pay at the pump and not go into the servo… So, I fill up, swipe my card, and dont notice that the transaction didn’t go through and the pump said ‘Pay Instore’… Thinking I had paid for the full tank, I continue to the gym… Meanwhile, at home, my wife is doing the dishes and notices a police car pull up outside our house. Two policemen come down the drive, stop to take note of the other car in the car port and ring the doorbell. “Are you the owner of car rego XXX-XXX?” they ask my wife, “Yes” she replies. “Where is the vehicle now?” they ask… “With my husband who has gone to the gym” my now worried wife replies. “Well, did you know the vehicle in question drove off without paying for fuel – get your husband to return to the petrol station within the next hour to settle the bill.”. So, there I am, sweating out an RPM class and my phone is in the locker with messages from the police and my wife (who wasnt that impressed!) coming through… I leave the gym and am checking the messages when I get the news… Red faced, I drive straight to the servo, and pay for the fuel to the ‘not-very-impressed’ attendant. After paying and hearing my explanation he said he didnt see me try to swipe the card and looked like I had brazenly driven up, filled up and driven off… Note to self – always get a receipt from the pay at pump machines!

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118. 

     dougal

     October 23, 2012

     I had taken my girlfriend for a café lunch in the city (Sydney) on a Saturday to celebrate her birthday but in all my rushing around and tiredness, having been called into work overnight to oversee machinery breakdown repairs, I had not got any cash out of an ATM to pay. We had a great time with nice food and wine and I thought, no problem I would just pay by credit card.
     I asked for the bill and they brought it over and I put my credit card in the folder to pay. The Café refused to accept card and said it was cash only and pointed to the sign I had clearly missed. To my utter embarrassment I had to ask my girlfriend to provide me with the cash to pay for the very lunch I took her out on to celebrate her birthday. One big whoops and I was seriously looking like an Indian-giver, confirmed by that look!

     Not wanting to leave her out of pocket for any length of time we walked to an ATM a couple of blocks away. I queued up while she stood to the side. As my turn came, and also being last in line, a car pulled up as I put my card in and two rowdy girls in short dresses got out to queue up behind me as I typed my pin.

     The driver was a burly man with tattoos who was yelling at them to hurry up. My initial thought was bugger, I am about to get robbed. As the girls laughed one leaned over to me and said “nice arse” and pinched my butt. Being tense from expecting something completely different, I jumped forward and bumped my head on the ATM. These girls and my girlfriend cracked up with laughter.

     Suffice to say all was forgiven. My girlfriend is now my wife.

     And having a Go-Money App would have meant I could have paid my girlfriend. Interestingly, I would still have gone to the ATM to get some cash, still got my butt pinched and hit my head and be forgiven by my wife to be!!

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119. 

     cephalxn

     October 23, 2012

     Well this didn’t happen to me, but I was involved in the story, it’s kind of embarrassing for my mate, but I don’t think he reads this site so here goes..

     My friends and I were all out of the drinks one night, having a decent go at it as usual. As the night went on, everyone started to head their own ways. Some went home, others moved on to another bar. I was one of the guys who went home to bed, as it was fairly late, being around 3:30am. After stumbling into bed, I managed to get to sleep while even though the world was spinning way faster than normal. Then the phone rings. I fumble for it in the dark and drop it. When I manage to pick it up, I notice that it’s about 5am. “Hello?”… *Hey man it me, listen, I’m in a bit of trouble and need you to transfer me some cash*.. “Are you alright man? If you’re stuck I can find someone to pick you up or something”.. *Nah man, I just need money, seriously, I need it now*… (I started to get a bit worried here) “Is everything okay? Are you in some kind of trouble?”.. *Seriously don’t worry, can you please just transfer me around $200*.. “Dude, I’m not going to transfer you that much money without knowing what it’s for”… *PLEASE MAN, I NEED IT*.. “Nah, you’ll be fine, I’m going back to bed”.. *Okay okay… I ended up at a Brothel, and I’ve already spent $300 and I still haven’t gotten off.. I just need $200 more otherwise it’s going to have been a complete waste of time*… “……… ………. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Are you fucking serious? hahahahahahahahah”.. *Come on man it’s not fucking funny, help me out*… “ahaahahahaha fine fine, you’re an idiot”… *Thanks so much man, I owe you one.. Please don’t tell anyone*.. “(still in tears of laughter) hahahah I won’t man, stay classy”.. *fuck you*..

     Funniest phone call I’ve ever gotten in my life. I guess I’ve broken my promise not to tell anyone now, but I just had to share it..

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120. 

     nathankunda

     October 23, 2012

     I went shopping with my girlfriend not realizing that i forgot my wallet.We actually stood in the line.When my turn to pay came, I realized that i wasn’t having my wallet.Taking the staff back was the most embarrassing thing in my life

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121. 

     Ben

     October 23, 2012

     Just last month I had an embarrassing moment with mobile banking. I had just received my Tax Return and used a banking web app to transfer my new funds into my savings account (which earns a bit of interest if I don’t touch it).

     The app accidentally selected my VISA (credit card) and transferred all my tax return onto that instead. Crap! I didn’t have anything to pay off (thankfully) and now my money can’t be moved *out* of that Credit Card without incurring a “cash advance fee”.

     I call the bank hotline, very upset about the app’s glitch and my error and made everyone in the car with me feel a bit awkward as I get more and more frustrated by the situation and the prospect of paying what I thought was a 2.5% fee …

     …it turns out, it was only a fee of $2.60. I made a fool of myself over $2.60.

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122. 

     bigerkev

     October 23, 2012

     Me and my girlfriend’s family often go out to dinner, and I’d offered to pay a bunch of times but had always been knocked back. Anyways, one night my girlfriend said that tonight might be a good night to pay, so I was all for it. Got to the checkout with the family behind me and apparently they only accepted cash, to which I had none…so my girlfriend had to pay.
     Seriously, what restaurant ONLY accepts cash?!

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123. 

     dleonseng

     October 23, 2012

     Try getting someone to prepare your food for you for about 10 minutes, only to not have any money on you. You walk off saying that you will go withdraw some money, and never go back to get your food again 🙁

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124. 

     justme

     October 23, 2012

     I wanted it to be surprise. It was our wedding anniversary…. I made a Bad…Very Bad mistake. My Wife worked for an Airline. She would be on the flight working ….So I booked a seat on that fight under an assumed identity. I picked a Random name (made it up) – but unbeknown to me that name was on a “No Fly list”… So I cunningly walked unassumingly into the airport to check in my bag. I had a beanie on (not usual) and I was hoping not be too noticed by her work friends, turns out nobody knew me anyway. There I was. Not using my name. No “assumed name” ID or credit card.. Oh… bad mistake.. At the counter – I got that “weird vibe” for the nice lady from the airline… asked me to “stand to the side please”… I was informed that my web booking transition had been “declined” for administration purposes- seems the name on my credit card “my name” did not match my assumed identity. I thought I could book a flight for somebody else with my credit card you see… (Remember my made up name – is on a “no fly” list)…. the men with curly wire came walking to me “Security!!!” – I spent 2 hours in a little room with police/customs – a scary huge man – questioning me, about my “transaction”- why I just didn’t use my own name – why I picked that name – going through my cloths – not believing me…. I missed the flight. I needed new undies. I now send flowers on all anniversaries…..

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125. 

     juststu82

     October 23, 2012

     We have a lovely land lord who took her business from the real estate when they tried to up our rent and instead let us rent privately and keep our original rent amount. The very first water bill after this happened, she sent to us directly and I transferred the money over to her account straight away wanting to show her how good a tenant I am. Three weeks later she called me and asked when I planned on paying the water bill, I checked the bank and found out I had transferred the cash to our bills account instead of directly to her. It was awkward trying to explain and I’m guessing she spent three weeks wondering if she should have taken us on as private renters.

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126. 

     PureS0u1

     October 23, 2012

     So my dad and I was at Woolworths at one of the isles while the woman is scanning all the products. My dad then wanted to get something he forgot, so he told me to mind the aisle while he goes get it. When the woman working asked me to pay, i told her to wait for my dad to come back. Around 5 minutes later there is long line of grumpy people behind me giving me the stares, which made me just to stare at the floor. A minute later my dad finally comes back without whatever he forgot, which i replied with a facepalm. At the end we ended up paying and running away from the angry customers.

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127. 

     Syke

     October 23, 2012

     Walking into a small corner store looking to buy a packet of chewing gum for $1.50. Realising i had no cash in my wallet i went to use my card. had about 4 people lined up behind me on what was supposed to be a quick exit my card was denied due to lack of funds :/ wasn’t aware bills came out of my account and left me with 60cents in my account lol. felt so embarrassed i just grabbed my card left the chewing gum and quickly exited the store.

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128. 

     philosophyfail

     October 23, 2012

     This situation was perhaps my most embarrassing and certainly ranks up there for most awkward.

     After a long night of winning drinking competitions and general triumph proving my overwhelming masculinity, I was, somehow still alone; no beautiful females fawning over my obvious skills in the art of both winning at pool and doing quite a fine job at maintaining dominance with pool smack talk. This is without mentioning my flawless victory in every drinking challenge presented; a known aphrodisiac.

     It was about this time that sanity began to diverge. All of my friends; either successful in attracting a prospective mate, or content in the company of their significant other, were planning out how to end the night and arrive at desired lodgings. I refused their offers of transportation, instead choosing to continue the evening with a newly aquired friend, james.

     James and I left the pub alone, plotting what could be done to keep the night alive. He was well spoken and presented so me being suprised is an understatement when he told me of a gathering ground for special companions he knew of. My shock continued when he mentioned, as a regular there he would be able to pick the creme de la crop for us at reasonable rates.

     I was uncomfortable. I was also drunk and horny and had no intention of letting his well laid plans go to waste.

     20 minutes later we were parting ways in seperate taxis, each with an accompanying companion and unique destination in mind. If I had a more open mind. Perhaps a slightly less alcohol infused mind then I am sure what followed would have been much less unpleasant.

     Alas I directed the cab driver to a water front vacation home roughly 45 minutes away from where we left. Conversely my actual appartment was only a 6 or 7 minutes drive. I wanted to bring some class to my fist intimate companion experience and I knew the view was fantastic and the alcohol selection abundant. I thought it was the perfect execution.

     Due to the topic I’m sure you can all see where this is going but I will see the tale through.

     We arrive and the cab driver asks for his $80 (this is a rural area, no cheap city rates here.) Low and behold my wallet has $30 and change. Cab drivers didn’t except eftpos at this point and the only atms in this town reside in two stores that would remain closed for many hours.

     It was about this point this poor compaion lost all composure. She was scared, angry and a long way from home. The driver seemed more amused then anything but obviously was still waiting on how I would get out of this predicament.

     I left him my phone and asked to wait while I went inside to grab some money (please let there be money.) He agreed.

     I got inside but I couldn’t find any money where I usually leave it and started to freak out. After about 5 minutes I had regained some composure and decided to raid the places I knew dad would sometimes leave money. All up I had found about $150; $180 including my wallet contents. Enough to cover the the cab fair for sure but the amount agreed upon with the fair lady was hourly and in no way covered.

     Retelling this is making me physically uncomfortable. It was a very stressful and embarresing moment. My saving grace was likely the fact that in the town in which I live there is only one taxi coop and many of the drivers knew me. So was the case for this driver but my plan, my very drunken plan still seemed a gambit and an expensive one at that.

     I came back out with the divers watch I kept there, all the money I had found and a few bottles of booze and explained the situation to the driver. I asked that he hold onto my phone and watch for collateral, each worth far more then the fair and return the lady to our starting location. I would pay him the fair the next day which these items guaranteed and would give him the bottle of aged bourbon I held as thanks. He accepted, laughing to himself and telling me how I really got myself in the shit this time and that he would see me tommorow.
     To the distressed (to be honest I think she had settled on anger at this point) vixen I gave all the money I could scrounge up, a nice bottle of wine and a cheap bottle of vodka. I think she prefered the vodka. I also think I made some kind of black list that day.

     And so ends my shameful, exepensive and horifically embarrassing story. I can’t say I’m sorry it went that way though. That bizzare series of events forced me to keep some form of chastity and put some serious thought into how I would feel paying for that service.

     With the accessibility of goMoney…god save us all.

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129. 

     wvw

     October 23, 2012

     About 6:00 AM one Sunday morning many years ago I was driving to an out of town festival to do a gig, I was already in costume (dressed as a medieval jester). Enroute I was pulled over by a policeman. He was doing random number plate checks and the plate on my car had set the alarm bells ringing. He checked my licence and confirmed that I was wanted for some prior conviction but he couldn’t tell me what it was. This had me perplexed as I have always been the ‘white sheep of the family’ and to my knowledge I had not broken any laws. The police officer kindly radioed his station who looked up the details of my ‘sordid’ past.

     My crime was that years earlier, when travelling overseas, I had forgotten to vote in an election. After getting home from my travels I had moved into a new house and somehow the failure to vote fine and all the subsequent and ever increasing fines had been sent to the old address (and the new tenants had not forwarded them). I asked why they were not sent to my new address as I had updated it when I moved. It seems that once an address is in the system for a fine all subsequent mail relating to the fine goes to the original address. The officer told me that he could let me go if I could pay the outstanding fine; he would even drive me to a cash machine if necessary. If I couldn’t pay then he would have to take me to the city watch house and I could sort it out from there. I had no cash on me and all my money was in my cheque account which wasn’t linked to my card. He wouldn’t accept a cheque (don’t really blame him) so it looked like I would be going to jail. I was having visions of phoning the event manager to tell her that I could not entertain the kids as I had been arrested. Even worse I was imagining the next morning news headlines “Clown in Jail”. What scared me the most was the thought of arriving at the watch house wearing a very short jester tunic with purple stockings and curly toed shoes. Luckily I had an idea.

     I suggested that I could call someone who would drive to a local police station to pay my fine. They could then call the police officer with the receipt number so he could let me go on my merry way. The officer radioed someone and said that that would be fine.

     I called and woke my brother who initially swore lots but then agreed to bail me out. Eventually the call came back saying that my fine had been paid, and after spending close to an hour on the side of the road in my jester’s outfit with a very embarrassed police officer I was once again a free man. I got back in the car, arrived at the gig just in time, did a good show, got paid, drove to my brother’s house, gave him the money and then lived happily ever after.

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130. 

     tim

     October 23, 2012

     After moving out of my mums place I bought a couch from Sydney’s, it was being delivered and i was supposed to pay the delivery guys $50 cash for delivery (and assembly). My girlfriend was supposed to leave $50 before she went to work, they delivery guys rocked up, i had no money. I offered to walk (my car died and haven’t got a new one since i work from home, no real need for it) to the shops 10mins (walking time) away or they could drive me but they refused.

     I think they were about to take the couch back but eventually they worked out a deal with Sydney’s that i pay them $50 by credit card and they will get it from Sydney’s later. It was very embarrassing, its hard to ensure you always have a stash of cash in the house.

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131. 

     Sofia

     October 23, 2012

     This happened years ago – I was catching a bus to go home from work. The fare was $2.50 but I only had a $10.00 note. I gave the bus driver the $10.00 note and he “freaked out”. He yelled at me for not having the correct fare. He didn’t have the $7.50 change so he didn’t take my money, told me to sit down and wait until he had enough change to collect my fare. I got off at my stop about 15 minutes later and he didn’t end up taking my money but he did continue to harrass me as I got off the bus. The bus had been packed with commuters and I felt totally humiliated. I did have the money to pay for my fare, but unfortunately it wasn’t acceptable to the bus driver.

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132. 

     patchz666

     October 23, 2012

     A few years ago I went into my local computer store to pick out an all new tower and hardware so I could build an awesome gaming pc, I spent ages going through what I wanted and comparing diffrent components.

     I finally decided all the stuff I wanted, Now days I know how to build a computer with my eyes closed however at this point I had to get the fella working there to put it all together.

     30-40 min later it was done and let’s jsut say I think at that point he was over having me in the store so he gave me all the boxes and discs etc helped me take the tower out to the car everything was fine.

     Then payment time came no worries mate whipped out my card and away we … declined hmmm ok i’ll try again.

     3 tries later and the guy was getting very annoyed and eyeing off the door incase I made a runer, I rang the bank in a frantic effort to fix the problem ended up the bank made an error on my account hense no money until they fixed it and they had no idea how long that would be

     . in the end I had to get my partner to settle the account for me which was just embarrassing.

     Thanks

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133. 

     Albert

     October 23, 2012

     Went to Woolworths to buy milk and grabbed some chocolate biscuits and lollies along the way.

     When the checkout chick told me of the total (probably less than $5) I found out and had to embarrassingly tell her to take one of the items off as I didn’t have enough cash on me to pay for it all!

     Mind you this was when I was a teenager so I didn’t have a Credit Card and EFTPOS didn’t exist in supermarkets.
     At least I was able to buy the lollies.

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134. 

     jester

     October 23, 2012

     Was at a restaurant with a bunch of friends celebrating my birthday, but I didn’t have cash so I asked if anybody would mind if they gave me the cash and I’d put everything on card. They were fine with that and it was a set price feast so everybody handed over cash right away. After a few drinks I started getting right into the spirit of things and ended up spending the cash on drinks for everyone from the bar. Unfortunately, when it came time to pay, I found out I’d already maxed my credit card so everybody had to cough up for their meal again, plus the cost of mine. Embarrassment doesn’t even begin to cover it…

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135. 

     timothyfuller

     October 23, 2012

     I had spent months preparing to propose to my, then girlfriend Anna. The whole day was prepared, the picnic at the outlook, the boat ride back to the city and I had even paid for dinner that night. All that was left for me to pick up was the ring. I went to the jeweler to pick up the ring I had spent months carefully designing for her and lo-and-behold, I had capped out my credit paying for the day. So I had to very sheepishly keep going with the date and then when it came to the proposal, I had to tell her she would have to wait until payday to get the ring… She still said yes though 😀

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136. 

     bellsy

     October 23, 2012

     While on holiday in Rio de Janeiro, my friend and I were recommended a restaurant, ‘Porcão’, by our hotel concierge.

     We arrived at the restaurant, and enjoyed the delicious Brazilian Churrasco BBQ and Caipirinhas made by a professional ‘cocktail artist’ who came out with a trolley and made them right in front of you. After a little while I noticed that there were no prices listed on the menu… we finished our food and I nervously asked for the bill – which came to more than $250AU! By a stroke of luck, I had taken more cash than usual, but for safety reasons had not carried cards or a phone. We were around $10 short, and after explaining the situation to the manager (who spoke broken English) he very reluctantly let us off the remainder of our bill. Walking out very red-faced and embarrassed we faced another issue – getting home!

     Having no idea where we were, no map and no money in our pockets I flagged down a taxi. The driver’s English skills? Zero! We devised a plan: once we arrived back at the hotel my friend would run upstairs and grab more cash while I stalled the driver with a bad game of charades trying to explain the situation.

     Thankfully my charade skills weren’t as bad as I thought and the driver, who was initially very concerned, started laughing like crazy once he figured out what was going on! Needless to say we gave him a nice tip for his inconvenience and we quickly ran back to our hotel room!

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137. 

     Teham Ahmad

     October 23, 2012

     Well, when I was 12 rode down a long way to the shops to buy my mother an emergency birthday present. So I got to the store and I picked out a good present for my mother, it was the cheapest half decent present there. So I picked it up and went to the counter and the cashier scanned it. So I went to take out my wallet, but it turned out that I left it at home. I couldn’t go home without a present and I couldn’t go back to get my wallet either. So I asked the lady and she told me that I could pay her back. I was relieved. So I took the present and told her i’d be back tomorrow.

     Two weeks later I realised that I hadn’t paid her back. So I went back there red faced and handed the money back to her, needless to say I never wen to that store again.

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138. 

     diotz

     October 23, 2012

     Years ago I left the Casino in Melbourne and I was sure that I has $20 left in my pocket to pay a cab. As I got in the cab and we proceeded to drive off, I thought I better check that I still had the $20, and not had a last minute punt on the way out. To my shock I could not find the $20 and had to explain this to the cabbie, who was very understanding, and he dropped me just out of the city, but I had to walk the rest of the way home, which was in Box Hill. I think by the time I got home, the sun was up and I had the sorest feet in history…. The moral of the story is don’t gamble kids!!

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139. 

     Penne

     October 23, 2012

     Ever had to go to the toilet in a hurry?…well I found myself at a ‘pay toilet’ and so badly needing to go I had to beg for some change. So embarrassing. (It’s these times I wish I was a male…lol… going behind a tree wouldn’t of cost a cent.)

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140. 

     senor_billgerto_gates

     October 23, 2012

     I thought that she said she accepted “Near Field Communication payments”. What she actually said was “Never fear. Contraception will save us.” Never leave with a prostitute from a loud bar if you have no cash. You will need to replace that new phone taken as payment.

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141. 

     jackcola

     October 23, 2012

     The only awkward moment is when you have no money to buy something

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142. 

     David Wiernik

     October 23, 2012

     There was a girl at school I really fancied. I told everyone I knew that I wanted to go out with her in the hopes they would tell her and she would somehow let me know if she was keen or not.
     Despite my best intentions, she didn’t find out and I had to pluck up the courage to ask her without any indication of what her response might be.
     So I took her aside, came out straight away and asked the question. Surprisingly there was little hesitation in her affirmative response and I immediately set about organising a date we could meet up at the earliest convenience. Suffice to say, I was eager.
     A few days passed and at last the weekend had arrived which also meant my upcoming social engagement. Before I went out I did the usual pocket check: wallet in the left, phone in the right. All set.
     The date went absolutely marvelously, I couldn’t have wished for a better night. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and it was time to leave and pay the bill. I said dinner was on me and as I did so reached into my pocket to pull out my wallet. However as I opened up the leather trifold, I beheld a most frightening sight…no cash and no card! I tried to subliminally communicate with the waiter to help bail me out of the situation but he was obliviously unaware. I was about to excuse myself to the bathroom but before I could even move a muscle my date picked up her glass of water, threw the contents in my face and left me with a very insensitive remark echoing in my ears. I was mortified but the nights disastrous ending but that was nothing compared to the reception I received at school the next day.
     I guess some things just aren’t meant to be…for everything else there’s MasterCard!

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143. 

     frggr

     October 23, 2012

     I’d just been in Auckland on a 3-day bender for a friends birthday. Over the course of my time there I hadn’t stopped drinking, from the moment I stepped on the flight there to the moment I stepped off the return flight (via Sydney from Melbourne).

     I got in a cab at Melbourne Airport at 8am on Monday morning, guitar case on my back and a bottle of duty free vodka in my hand, snugly covered by a stubby holder. I was busting to go to the bathroom so was glad the cab driver hot-footed it straight to the office, but I was already running late and running out of time.

     The cab pulled up at 9:15am and I pulled out my trusty ANZ Credit Card and went to pay the driver the 40-odd dollars for the fare.

     Declined.

     “But I know it’s got plenty of credit on it” I said weakly

     The cab driver got increasingly angry and my bladder was losing its structural integrity. The cab sat idling as the driver ranted on.

     The tension built to an enormous crescendo, the cab driver becoming more and more enraged with a vein above his eye looking like it was about to explode, and the beginnings of an unhappy pants-related accident occurring in the passenger seat.

     My phone call to the ANZ was seemingly taking forever and ever until finally, finally I made it through.

     As a safety precaution after a number of suspicious ‘international’ transactions, my card had been blocked.

     The customer service officer sorted out the block, I paid for the cab and got out. The cab driver sped off in haste and I made a bee-line for a nearby alley.

     With all crises averted, I headed up to the office, guitar case on my back, bottle of vodka still in my hand, hair dishevelled, eyes bloodshot.

     I sat down at my desk, threw my guitar case down and slammed my bottle of vodka on the desk.

     The boss came up to me, looking worried and said we needed to have a chat…

     After announcing her concern for my well-being, exacerbated by this mornings late appearance, she went offered me a second-in-command position there and then.

     And all because I couldn’t pay for a cab.

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144. 

     christine

     October 23, 2012

     I have a bad habit of forgetting my Glasses , i walked in a Store wanting to purchase a Jar of Coffee, i picked up a large Jar of Nescafe which i thought it said $3.99 when in fact it was $8.99 and i thought i was getting a bargain lol, Got to the counter to pay and the Checkout girl said $8.99 thanks,well didn’t i go off lol, telling her it was marked as $3.99 i stood there argueing for a couple of minutes while she sent another employee to check the price lol.
     Needless to say i was very embaressed and didn’t get any coffee as i only had $ $4.50 with me 🙂

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145. 

     andy-laa

     October 23, 2012

     Was test-driving a used Camry for $1200 when the petrol ran out about 5 minutes up the road.

     Decided to walk back and tell the mechanic selling it. He came out a bit grumpy but understanding enough and gave me a thimble-worth of petrol to drive it back. I managed to convince him that I just wanted to give it a go on a main road to test the gears and I’ll stick enough petrol to get it back (petrol station was a couple of ks down the road).

     So I ran out of petrol as I was rolling into the petrol station at which point I thought “Oh, my luck is changing!”…how wrong I was. I couldn’t reach the pump, so I had to enlist the help of people around me to help push it forward a few metres (it was an ’88 Camry, therefore weighs the equivalent of a country – it took 5 people and me steering).

     Filled up $7.20 of petrol – still have the reciept for it.

     Panic-panic. I had to leave my driver’s license with the seller and I thought it was easier just to leave my wallet with the guy (trusted him – friend of a friend).

     I decided the only way was to ring the seller – unfortunately his business card was in the aforementioned wallet.

     I explained the situation to the cashier and asked if they had internet access to find the number for the mechanic which of course, they didn’t, but did have an ancient White Pages directory which luckily had his number in it.

     Rang him up, asked if he could come down and meet me at the petrol station so I could pay, face going flush and tummy rumbling as the phone rang – I was mortified that this had happened! He grunted that he’d be there in 10 minutes as he was finishing up something.

     He arrived and I paid and followed him back. I Decided (partially out of sheer embarrassment) that I was going to buy the car and put it on my card, forgetting there was a payment limit on it.

     Pretty much the most disgustingly embarrassing moment involving money in my life involving money made worse. Fortunately, we realised that I could put it through as 2 separate $600 transactions.

     After he basically flung the keys back to me, I drove home, my mind reeling and crawled into a hole intent on dying.

     I still drive it and everytime I look at it, I’m still flush with embarrassment. Great car though!

     – My email address is the same as my account is registered with.

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146. 

     twcustoms

     October 23, 2012

     Was having a great Friday night out with a girl I just met. Before heading back to mine had to run into the supermarket to get some protection. was in such a good mood for obvious reasons, I even gave the beggar asking for change out the front. At the checkout my card was declined as I didnt realise it expired. My date then saw me trying to get my change back ($9) off the bum i just donated to. needless to say things went downhill from there

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147. 

     Zuno

     October 23, 2012

     When I was 9 years old I went to the local corner shop to get $1 worth of half cent lollies. After the shopkeeper took almost 5 minutes (seemed like forever) to count and bag, I realised that my pocket money must have fallen through a hole in my wallet and I had no money to paid for it. He got so angry and started shouting at me in another language. I was so embarrassed but he did learn a lesson. From that day on he always asked everyone for money upfront.

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148. 

     Yvette ODowd

     October 23, 2012

     On my wedding day, after the ceremony and while the photographer was busily taking our photos, the MC came over and whispered in my bridal-ear that the bridal car people needed to be paid before they could leave! I had completely overlooked this in my planning and my cheque book was packed away with everything for our honeymoon! The bride was indeed blushing -the MC said he would take care of it and we could pay him back later!

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149. 

     Frank

     October 23, 2012

     It’s 1992. ATMs in Pamplona are inaccessible to tourists like us. These are the days when Spanish bank tellers chain smoke in your face while counting out your cash. Robyn and I are feasting at a tapas bar in Pamplona spending the last of our available cash before taking the night train back to Barcelona. Just as we are about to pay the bill, we realise that our tab for which we have sufficient cash, is just the food bill. We did not notice that there was a separate drinks bill which we can only partially cover. No ATMs . The banks are closed. And we have a train to catch in ten minutes with our bicycles already on board. With our miserably poor Spanish, we are not going to be able to explain the situation to the barkeeper. There is only one thing to do. Throw all the cash we have on the table (covering most of the bill) and do a runner. Thus we find ourselves RUNNING FROM THE BILLS IN PAMPLONA!

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150. 

     biggestchops

     October 23, 2012

     I posted this as Tim, and it didn’t show up. I used the same email to register in any case.
     When I was smooth faced adolescent of about 16, I thought I could get away with pretending I was 18, the minimum age for buying… risque magazines. I went to a newsagent in the local mall, and quickly grabbed what I thought was a Playboy.

     I took the magazine to the front of the store and put it on the counter, and casually added a cigarette lighter to the bill, thinking that if I bought another “over-18” item, the shopkeep would be convinced and not require identification. The middle-aged lady behind the counter looked at my planned purchases, looked at me, and said:
     “I’m going to need to see some identification.”

     My heart was pounding, but I figured I’d just pretend that I forgot it at home. When I reached into my back pocket, I realized two things:
     1)I don’t have my wallet, let alone identification that would convince this lady I can legally purchase what I’d put on the counter.
     2)What I’d put on the counter wasn’t Playboy after all, but a niche publication called “50 Plus”.
     I turned bright red, and began to stammer about forgetting my wallet at home. And that’s when a second patron showed up behind me at the till.

     “Hey Tim!” says the patron behind me, who I quickly recognize as one of my mom’s nice church lady friends (aged approximately 50 years). I actually just ran out of the store at that point.

     I don’t think she told my mom, but she sure did smile at me strangely at church after that.

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151. 

     James

     October 24, 2012

     Recently my friends and I were having a Halo night, obviously beer and pizza are a part of the evening too. As my mates had supplied the beer, my best mate and I went to pick up the pizza from some new pizza place.

     Neither of us had placed the order but we got directions and headed off. When we arrived at the pizza place we were impressed as we noticed how nice it was. We waited a few minutes for it to be ready… eventually our order is ready and its time to pay. The total came to over $70!!!!! My mate and I looked at each other and waited for the other to pull out their wallet… eventually we realise that neither of us actually even bought our wallet!

     So now we are trying to pay for the most expensive pizza in the world with nothing but fresh air and a smile… neither of us are winners in the smile dept. either!

     There is one more hope… hanging on the wall next to us is a giant wheel with 100 different wedges all representing a potential discount… and 1 of the wedges offering to be our savior… this particular wedge offered our entire order for free.

     So with desperation written all over our penniless faces I spun the wheel. Yup you guessed it, somehow I ended up landing on the promised land of free pizza! The pizza shop had never had more jubilant winners before, and to this day our picture is up on the winners wall, and I have never ordered pizza from that shop again!

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152. 

     Weiye

     October 24, 2012

     When I was little, I would spend any notes in my pocket money as quickly as possible so that I would get “more money” back in change. It took me a while to figure out why I was able to buy less and less.

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153. 

     johnmc26

     October 24, 2012

     i think samsung are pretty cool ok brand so its a matter of taste

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154. 

     starfish

     October 24, 2012

     In my more youthful years, I was feeling a little vivacious and made a visit to my local grocery store in pursuit of some “prophylactics”. The mission was simple, get-in and get-out. After going to the check-out and proceeding with payment, the card was declined as I had no money left.

     However, the teller decided that we should try the card several times. Whilst a queue started to build-up behind me, I stood there with just a box of glow-in-the dark “prophylactics” on the counter. She then insisted on paging the manager and in the mean time I panicked, grabbed my glow-in-the dark prophylactics and ran off like the kid in ‘Home Alone’ running with the toothbrush only to be manhandled by security at the door, prophylactics still in hand.

     Moral of the story… check your account balance prior to glow-in-the-dark CONDOM adventures.

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155. 

     hungryhendo

     October 24, 2012

     I once intended to win a competition but lacked the ability to recall or even invent a good story for entry. Approaching a talented out of work writer I offered a sum for them to complete an entry for me. On delivery of an awesome piece work sure to be up there when it came to the judging I reached to my back pocket to find it empty. Obviously I was left with just this.

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156. 

     quark35

     October 24, 2012

     A few years ago my wife and i decided to build our first home after years of renting. We were complete novices in this area. We found a block in a new estate under development and put our deposit down. The block took over 6 months to be finished, giving us plenty of time to prepare our bank financing via a very well known mortgage broker.
     All the ducks were in order, and finally the land was ready for payment and conveyancing. Once the final payment process starts you only have a small amount of time to finalize final payemnt or you can start payment late payment interest etc… The bank had all the paper work it needed and duly prepared our final payment cheque for the land. All going great until we found the cheque was $19,000 shorter than what our broker had advised it would be. The broker (lets call him Ozzie) had mistakenly factored in the first home buyers grant without realizing that this payment on occurs after you begin building a house, not purchasing the land. This was the most stressful 24 hours in our lives! After the shock and anger of how our broker could make such a fundamental mistake passed we scrambled like mad and thanks to our families, managed to borrow the funds to close the gap. The rest of the building and moving process was relatively perfect thank goodness.
     Next time I need a mortgage I will go straight to the bank, not a middle man!

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157. 

     reece

     October 24, 2012

     iI was two weeks into my new job and bought a half price pizza for 7 dollars but when I paid for it my debit card was rejected and my credit card said please contact my bank, turns out my fiance was unhappy about my buying a new computer the week before so pulled all my money out and his it in the freezer and locked my credit card-my new manager was the person serving me too, bad first impression

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158. 

     WillD

     October 24, 2012

     After a lengthy wait in a long queue at the supermarket with a huge trolley full of food, getting to the checkout counter, the person at the counter scanning every item and packing it up for me, only to discover that I had left my wallet at home and couldn’t pay!

     Then having to face a lot of very pissed off people in the queue behind me, unpack all the food, put it all back in the trolley and go around the supermarket and put every item back on the shelves!

     How to look like a complete idiot for 1/2 hour.

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159. 

     cameronj

     October 24, 2012

     I had recently started my new, and through some miscommunication and human error my information had been lost and I wasn’t on their books. Being a job that paid fortnightly it wasn;t until the 3rd week working there that I noticed no pays had been processed. Many of my bills were due at the time (rent, mobile, car loan). I was calling around frantically making changes to payment schedules trying to buy myself another week to get the money.

     Eventually on the 5th week I got paid and was able to cover all my bills, mind you I had no spare cash for the next 2 weeks, thankfully no bills came in during that time. Strangely enough I still work there and it wasn’t the last time they messed up my pay.

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160. 

     Andrew

     October 24, 2012

     Would paying $899 for a Galaxy SIII that you can quite easily find online for well under $600 qualify as a financial faux pas?

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161. 

     bobmckoy

     October 24, 2012

     I got a call from my girlfriend who had had a really bad day at work and sounded pretty upset. I decided she was in need of a ‘pick-me-up’ so I offered to take her out to a nice dinner to try and cheer her up, telling her not to worry about bringing money, it was my shout.

     I picked her up and took her to a nice restaurant that we hadn’t tried before, the meals were lovely and the service was great, we ate and drank and she seemed to have forgotten the terrible day she had just had. As we went to leave and pay, I checked my wallet and found that my bank card was missing, I left it at home on the scanner.

     I then had to explain to her that she would have to stay at the restaurant (under threat of doing all the dishes should I not return) while I drove all the way home to pick up my card and come back to foot the bill and collect my terribly embarassed girlfriend..

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162. 

     Phibster

     October 24, 2012

     I owed a friend some money but he could never give me his account details, and I always forgot to draw money out before we next met. In the end I eventually remembered and not 2 weeks later he got a new phone and told me about the iPhone goMoney!

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163. 

     ayin77

     October 24, 2012

     I few years back a mate and I moved into a swanky apartment in the city. All went for about 8 months, when my mate went overseas with his then girlfriend. He said he’d leave money in his room to pay for the rent while he was away (for a month). No biggie.

     Anyways, he left, and 2 weeks later rent was due so I head into his room to find a small toolbox filled with shrapnel, and a note. WTF! I ended up having to lug this thing up to the local bank (on a skateboard) to get it liquefied so I could pay rent. As it was only enough for this rent, I assumed he’d be back in time to cover then next rent in two weeks time.
     Well he came back in time and presumably all was back to normal.

     About 3 months later the 12 months was up and we decided to go our separate ways. At this time as we were moving out and doing the final inspections I met the Real Estate Agent who was most irrate that we hadn’t paid around $6 grand in back rent. I was like WTF! Apparently my ‘mate’ had pretty much wiped himself out on the OS trip, and had been hiding letters of demand for those few months. He’d already bailed from the flat, and left me to tidy his mess.

     I was totally screwed. Being in my early 20’s I had no savings, and all of my spare money went on nights out and booze. There was no way I was going manage to produce $6000!

     Very luckily for me the Real Estate Agent understood my predicament – I was able to show receipts of my payments on the due dates for my 1/2 of the rent, as well as the rental agreement with said amounts on it. So after a few weeks she let me go and put her lawyers/debt collectors onto this other guy..

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164. 

     karmadillo

     October 24, 2012

     After successfully completing a corporate rebranding of one of ANZ’s competitors, I took the extended team out for a lunch at a good restaurant to celebrate.
     After lunch and a drink or two, I went to pay the bill. My credit card had expired.
     The restaurant staff weren’t prepared to let me leave without paying. I didn’t have enough cash by a long shot. Eventually after making a few phone calls, they agreed to send me an invoice. But they took photos of me as well as keeping my business card, just in case I was dodgy.
     Really embarrassing when I was the organiser of the event!
     My colleagues and staff were waiting for me outside for a long time while this was resolved.

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165. 

     fican

     October 24, 2012

     I’m sure a lot of people have mentioned a story like this, but mine may be a little different. A number of years ago, I decided to take the dog, a Jack Russell, to the beach for a walk (don’t worry, it was winter). I desperately needed petrol so went via the service station, only to realise after I’d finished filling the car that I didn’t bring my purse with me. The service guy said I could leave something of value behind while I go home to get my purse.

     So I left the dog.

     She would be fine just tied up out the front with the service guy keeping an eye on her, right? Wrong! I got back after only 10-15 minutes away and found she wasn’t letting anyone in or out the front door of the service station. She’s normally fine when I leave her out the front of a shop, but I guess she thought I’d left her behind when I drove off and lost it! Thankfully she didn’t bite anyone (never has) but wow it was embarrassing picking her up and paying for my petrol!

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166. 

     ftwstewieg

     October 24, 2012

     Word of advice guys the day you take your partner to choose her engagement ring (gave her a burger ring the night i proposed) probably best to check your bank balance before hand or at least stash money somewhere else…. nothing worse than having an angry fiancee no matter how bad the jewelry store owner treats you. at least you don’t have to go home with them.

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167. 

     Darcy

     October 24, 2012

     here is my little interesting story,
     i finish working at the local shopping center and as i walk out the door i get a text from my dad to meet him at Woolworths. I make my way over and when i’m there i find my dad looking all sheepish and embarrased at the service desk whilst the person manning the desk had a smirk on her face. Turned out that my dad took is wallet but didn’t have any cash or credit cards as my sister earlier in the day took them out to purchase items online. Nevertheless i paid for the shopping and my dad thanking me like a god. Still hasn’t given the money he owes me…

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168. 

     Scott

     October 24, 2012

     I owed my friend $2500 rent for living at his house. As a friendly gesture I gave him $2500 of my own Monopoly money… He didn’t take kindly to that, so I said he can share my house… And gave him a little red monopoly house as a token of my appreciation. One day I was playing monopoly in a drunken state and tried calling him to get my money back so we could play the game properly however his phone was disconnected. So I ran into him the next month and asked him why I couldn’t get a hold of him… And he said he couldn’t pay his phone or electricity bills because all he had left was Monopoly money.

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169. 

     j

     October 24, 2012

     My story is when I couldn’t pay…someone out. (Slightly different) I was at my gf’s 21st on the deck of the boat club. A really slow running group are coming. Being drunk and a bit of a dick, I decide to slow clap them. When they finally come close enough because they run so slow, I see it was a group of 10 down syndrome runners. I slow clapped them in front of over 100 people including the gf’s folks. Epic fail. To this day I still get paid out about the day I wrongly paid out disabled people. Can you ease my distress with a new GS3 so I can call them and apologise? LOL. I just want a new phone.

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170. 

     Kyle

     October 24, 2012

     I have two, one going through a busy takeaway restaurant on a Saturday night, pulling up to collect my order and realizing my bank card was at home. Trying to convince them to come back was a hard task seeing as I was dirty from working outside all day and had a beanie on! (yes, pretty judgemental!) and secondly filling my car up with fuel, going in to pay and once again having no bank card. Doh!

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171. 

     Mazley

     October 24, 2012

     Back when I was still in high school, I had to have a minor medical procedure done. As a treat for myself, I decided to order a cheesecake to pick up after the procedure, however, I was less than informed about how out of it I would be afterwards.
     After the procedure was finished I was picked up and driven to the cheesecake shop. Upon arrival, I apparently insisted I was fine to go in and purchase my cheesecake. I came out around 10 minutes later, without a cheesecake – making my Mum have to go in and pick it up for me. The attendant said I’d just come in, started talking to her about random stuff, then walked out. I have no memory of any of it!

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172. 

     Jacwabbit

     October 24, 2012

     We bought a (heavily discounted demo) almost new car. First shiny thing after a long list of beaten up used beasts held together with tape and grime. The best part about it was it still had some warranty, which meant free services! After about a year, the anniversary of which I clearly failed to recognise, I took it in for the usual (shockingly frequent) scheduled service – and of course I was entirely carefree given our lovely history of free services. Well you can imagine my shock when I go to pick up the car, only to be hit by a seriously hefty ‘routine service plus you’ve done way too much driving in this thing you should really keep it parked undercover’ service fee! I have no money in my account, I’ve left my credit card safely at home (bad window shopper!) and I am completely bright red freaking out all over the polished concrete showroom floor. The suits are not giving an inch and there’s no one I can call. The only thing that saved me was remembering my almost never used and sometimes unreliable legacy US credit card that I’ll keep active as long as Amazon remains in business!

     Needless to say, I now schedule services around cash flow availability and I always keep that card with me!

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173. 

     woodsy

     October 24, 2012

     So traveling over in Aisa, I went to the ATM and took some cash, went on to a few purchases later and a big night out, running lower on cash, went to check out next day at the hotel and collect the bill. Only to discover I had no key card, oh no, I’ve lost it…
     The little Asian man going mental over payment, me standing their trying to explain I had no card, and I must have lost it.
     Friend walks over and ask’s if everything is ok, ask’s if I used the ATM the day before, I’m like yeah sure I did, Sure enough he says, here use mine, its got heaps of credit, hands me my card back and insists I take it, I notice its mine… his like well I was walking past the ATM and it was beeping, he looked over and took the key card out of the machine and seen my name on it, takes it with him and notes “this will be funny later…”.
     Sure enough says, here use mine, its got heaps of credits, hands me my card back and insists I take it, I notice its mine… and queue a dozen probing questions on why he has it, a good laugh and we were on our way.
     Also note that the ATM’s over their give you cash first and card second, not like over here.

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174. 

     angryrabbi

     October 24, 2012

     I’d intended to repress the embarrassing parts of this memory forever, but for the chance of winning an SIII I’ll endure it once more.

     I work with Chrissy, and I’ve had a huge crush on her since we met nearly two years ago. She’s really beautiful, a genuinely lovely person, and I believe we share a real connection. We see each other every day at work, but I’d never made a move. I know she enjoys my company as a friend (I sometimes make her laugh until she snorts, it’s really cute!), but I felt like she’s a bit out of my league and I wasn’t sure if she’d be interested me in a romantic way.

     Two weeks ago, on Friday, I decided I was going ask her out. She’d recently broken up with her long time boyfriend Terry (who is an idiot, by the way), and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity to catch her while she was single. We had lunch together at Subway (it’s our Friday thing), and as we were finishing up I just bit the bullet and just asked her if she’d like to have dinner with me sometime. She seemed a bit hesitant (I like to think she was just flattered and caught off-guard), but to my utter surprise and delight she accepted, and we arranged to go out to dinner the following evening.

     I was so ecstatic! The minute I got back to the office I called up a florist nearby and ordered a big bouquet of flowers. I paid for them over the phone with my credit card, and picked them up on the way home from work that evening. Chrissy loves Asian food, so I made a reservation for two at Saigon Palace. I hadn’t been before, but it’s rated 92% on Urbanspoon and the food was described as quality authentic traditional Vietnamese cuisine.

     The following day I was a wreck of nerves. I desperately wanted the date to go well, and spent much of the day running through the date and our possible conversations in my head. By the time I arrived at Chrissy’s front door to pick her up, I was literally in a cold sweat. However, in spite of my nerves, the date proceeded really well. Chrissy loved the flowers, our conversation flowed easily, the restaurant was beautiful, and Chrissy kept commenting on how much she enjoyed her food. It was about 10:30pm by the time we finished our deserts, and Chrissy excused herself to go to the bathroom. I figured we’d leave soon after she returned, and decided that while she was gone I’d discretely pay the bill and we’d avoid any awkwardness about splitting it (I totally support gender equality, but I do believe the man should always pay for the first date).

     I walked up to the counter near the entrance and asked the gentleman standing behind the till (I’ll call him “Tran”) if I could pay the bill for our table. Tran seemed to be a first generation Vietnamese Australian. Like our waiter his English wasn’t great, but we’d been served with nice warm smiles all night, and they hadn’t had any trouble taking our orders. The bill was prepared and passed it to me; the total had come to $126. That’s a lot of money to me, but I’d had a great time and didn’t mind the cost.

     I opened my wallet and reached for my credit card. Not there. Confused and a little distressed, I thumbed quickly through the various compartments. “Surely it must be in here somewhere”, I reasoned. But it just wasn’t! That’s when I began to feel real panic. “Cash!” I thought desperately, but I already knew I didn’t have that much on me. I yanked open the cash compartment. A fifty and a twenty. “Sh*t!”

     “The credit card must be in here!” I thought and began rifling through the wallet again. Then it hit me, the flowers! I’d ordered the flowers from work using my credit card. In my excitement about the date I’d probably placed it down amongst the clutter on my desk instead of returning it to my wallet! I was furious with myself.

     “Excuse me, I have a bit of a problem…”
     I explained the whole situation to Tran. He listened intently, smiling and nodded, and he seemed genuinely sympathetic. I apologies for the inconvenience, and asked if I could pay the $70 that I did have now, drop Chrissy home, get some more cash from my house, and return to pay the difference in about an hour.

     I finished talking, and awaited Tran’s response, but he just continued staring at me as though he expected me to keep explaining. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to say anything, I asked again “So, is it ok if I pay $70 now, I’ll leave to get some more cash and come back later to pay the difference?”.

     Tran nodded, “Ok, no problem”.

     “Thank God!”
     A wave of relief washed over me.

     I thanked Tran, handed him the money I had and returned to my table not a minute before Chrissy’s return from the bathroom. We chatted for a few minutes and then decided to leave. When I told Chrissy that I’d already taken care of the bill she was very grateful and thanked me profusely. We got up to leave and walked towards the exit. As I walked by Tran I smiled at him, said “thank you” and gave him a little nod. I’d expected a similar response from him, but instead he appeared perplexed.

     “That’s not a good sign”, I though.
     About 3 seconds later my intuition was confirmed.

     “Excuse me. Excuse me!”
     Came a call from behind us.

     “This isn’t happening”, I thought to myself.
     I pretended I hadn’t heard the call and continued walking on, but Chrissy had stopped. “I think he’s talking to us” she said. I turned around to see Chrissy and Tran staring at me. I felt my face flush hot with embarrassment. My heart pounded so hard in my chest I felt like I could hear it.

     “Is there a problem?”
     I stared at Tran, willing him desperately to understand.

     “You pay now? You only pay 70 dollar, please must still pay 56 dollar” said Tran, no longer smiling.

     “Oh, did you only pay for your meal?” Chrissy asked.

     “Ha, no, I paid for everything. They’ve made a mistake or mixed us up with someone else” I replied.

     Yes, in hindsight this was clearly a very very stupid move, but I was in a state of total panic and stress and wasn’t thinking straight at the time.

     “No make mistake, you only pay 70 dollar. You say you pay rest later!”

     A long, heated, and embarrassing argument ensued for several minutes. I continued to deny the (rather valid) allegations against me, while Tran (along with several other of the restaurant staff who had joined in at this point), continued to demand the remaining $56. The conflict was deadlocked until Tran drew his phone and began threatening to call the police. At this point Chrissy pulled out $60 in cash from her purse, handed it to Tran, and told him to “Piss off!”. I pretended to be offended and angry with her for giving in to them, but I was really very relieved that she’d saved me from almost being arrested!

     We spent the drive back to her place in silence. I think Chrissy was trying process it all, and work out what really happened, and if I was telling the truth. I was devastated that I’d ruined an otherwise perfect first date, and I was ashamed that I’d lied to everyone. I pulled the car up to Chrissy’s house and we both sat there in darkness and silence for a moment. “I owe you an apology” I said, and proceeded to reveal the horrible truth. Chrissy sat in silence for the entire telling, almost expressionless except for the widening of her eyes. I knew I’d ruined the date, broken her trust, and destroyed any chance of a relationship with her. But, as the story came to an end, instead of blowing up at me, Chrissy burst into a fit of laughter!

     “I can’t believe you did that” she gasped, between fits of giggles and snorts.

     “I know, I’m kind of retarded!”, I laughed sheepishly.

     We sat in the car for an hour and a half recounting the ordeal in every detail, laughing until we cried, it was one of the best night of my life.

     Chrissy and I are still together.

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175. 

     goliath290

     October 24, 2012

     A while ago my mum gave me money to walk down to the shops and get some grocery’s and Panadol because she was in pain. I went down to the shops got the stuff we needed then went to the cash register went to pay and was about 7 dollars short. I told the cashier that I didn’t have enough money and said I would put a few things back. I ran around the shops returning things we didn’t need very much (keeping the Panadol) until I had enough money to buy what we needed most. I left the shops with about 4 items then got home, and my mum said “did you get my text” I said no because my phone was dead and she said “we don’t need any Panadol I found some in the cupboard.”

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176. 

     TooDorrah

     October 24, 2012

     I was in a music store picking up a fair chunk of studio gear (I had finally saved up to replace what I lost in the Brisbane floods) and went to pay, only to have my card regected. Embarrassed, I jumped onto NetBank and saw that I had plenty of cash. Confused I explained to the guy behind the counter and he just laughed, saying I probably had a limit on my card. Of course, I’m an idiot.

     Tried again, a few items at a time. Work well to start with, but hit my daily card limit really quickly – not even half way through. I had to call my girlfriend to come in, transfer money to her, then try again. Same problem, daily limit. Finally called a housemate to finish off the remaining part, and then realised the beauty of the situation. In my eagerness to grab my gear, I failed to realise there was way too much gear for me to carry myself. Oh wait! Now I have two pack horses :-D. Happy accidents.

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177. 

     itsn8o

     October 24, 2012

     I was in Bali and decided to go to one of these massage places I heard so much about. I found a nice looking one, not too expensive about a 15 minute walk from my Hotel. The lady had me strip down to my jocks and put me in this girly Sarrong where she led me to a bed in another room where I had my massage. The massage was great, but the thing was I forgot to change over any money as I landed that day! She was quite angry I couldn’t pay her and held my clothing ransom until I came back with Balinese money. So I had to walk 20 minutes to the nearest money converter in Seminyak in a girly Sarrong so I could get my clothing back that was being held ransom. Must of been whistled at by a dozen drunk Aussie tourists between the massage place and the currency exchange. Quite embarrassing!

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178. 

     proment

     October 24, 2012

     Was starving hungry and knew I had no money but decided to check my netbank anyway and to my surprise seen i had $89 in there excited drove to my local supermarket grabbing a bundle of things, head to the checkout and tried to pay for my shopping to find out I hadn’t seen the – in front of the $89… Turns out my phone bill got direct debited leaving me with -$89.00 🙁

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179. 

     ft85

     October 24, 2012

     My exams had come to an end and me and a few mates decided to go have a pizza. In a haze of euphoria at the thought completing my yearlys, I offered “my shout!” We entered and three pizzas were ordered. After finishing the meal, I pulled out my wallet, and then it dawned on me that in my rushed morning search in the dark for my wallet, I had reached for an ancient velcro wallet I had used in primary. Red-faced I admitted this to my friends who kindly offered to pay BUT then I made the mistake of excusing myself to the toilet, to which they saw as a sign to pull a runner. What ensured was an awkward talk with my exasperated brother to drive to the store and pay, a few expletive ridden texts to my mates and the exchange of suspicious glances to the shop owner.

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180. 

     Callum Selmes

     October 24, 2012

     I was in Vietnam recently and my friend and I had gone to the Markets in Hoe Chi Min City. I had no cash on me at the time so my friend agreed to pay for my stuff til we found an ANZ ATM (I didn’t want to go to some weird Vietnamese bank in case something went wrong.). As we finished shopping and I had borrowed about $60 worth of Vietnamese Dong we found an ATM on the corner. We had about an hour til we were due at the airport to leave.
     So I put my card in, punched in my pin and ordered the money. As the transaction was about to complete the power went out. The ENTIRE market lost power. I turned to my friend who just stared at the machine. 5 minutes pass and the power hasn’t turned back on and I’m beginning to worry. My card, money and receipt are all stuck in the machine. I asked the local guard if the power cuts out often. He said “it turns off all the time, normally takes between 30 minutes and an hour”. I started to freak. I had a taxi waiting for me in 40 minutes and my friend was getting even more nervous. We ring the help line for ANZ Vietnam and they say they can get the card out! I ask when can they do it. They say “Within the next 24 hours”. AAARRRR! I swear and turn off the phone and as soon as I do the power switches back on! My friend was nearly screaming by this point and we both sighed with relief. I don’t think I’ve ever been so worried in my life.
     That was also the day I found out ATM’s run on Windows XP.

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181. 

     bl

     October 24, 2012

     This story happened when I was twelve and alone by myself in a shopping centre to buy a birthday present for my mum. I had my life savings of around $200, got her a heap of crap from Hot Dollar (quantity > quality!) and went to get her a nice card from Woolworths. On the way though, I stopped by EB Games and whilst I was wandering around, I subconsciously played with my wallet. My wallet was one of those three-sectioned folded velcro ones and it was hanging on a clip on my belt. It was basically swinging from my wallet from side to side.
     Anyway, once I picked out the right card and got to the register, I found that the velcro holding the wallet together had become unstuck and (gasp!) my entire life savings were gone! I remember tearing up at this point and having people behind me asking me what happened, etc. The cashier was a young guy though, and he was being a jerk. I distinctly remember him saying something along the lines of: “listen kid, hurry up and get out of the line and go find your mummy.”
     Eventually, a kind Aussie lady took me to the Centre Help desk and I told them that I had lost $200. On the way to the Help desk though, I met a group of friends from school who saw me crying and asked me if the lady was my mum (I’m Asian btw). Eventually, they called up my Mum and it turned out that centre had received some money but they wasn’t sure if it was me. Apparently all they received was $160 but I was able to convince them when I remembered that all my notes were crumpled as were the notes they received.
     I ended up getting her the card, but the most embarrassing parts to this story was seeing my mum’s disbelief on her face, getting told to get out of the line by the cashier and having my friend’s as witnesses to the humiliating events…

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182. 

     bighead

     October 24, 2012

     Not that I’m a cheap ass, well sort of I guess.
     I would scab food off my friends all the time. Even get my mates to shout me. Sometime I will pay them back of course…. Sometimes~
     ANZ go Money may be the app to rid me of my title “Cheapo Kat”.

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183. 

     Dale

     October 24, 2012

     Went to get McDonalds for the family (stop hating 😉 and forgot my new credit card kicked on on that date. I get the bags of ‘stuff’ thrust into my hands along with the receipt and I got back to the car where I diligently check and found I was missing a small fries! Thieves!! So I run back in, plonk the bags on the counter and explain they will have to provide new hot foods along with the fries since I had to wait for service. They check the receipt … it says CANCELLED, or some such harsh comment and I then realise
     1) I was going to (accidentally) get free macca’s but now I won’t because I was cranky
     2) I don’t have my new card with me and so now my righteous indignation just means I look like a dick
     3) I still have to go home and engage my hungry family to get my card – Ugh ohhh 🙁

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184. 

     natbery

     October 24, 2012

     One day as a late teen I was playing monopoly with my friends. We thought it would be funny if we replaced all the cash in our wallets with monopoly money and bet with each other using the fake money. That night, I went on my first date. I went up to pay the bill like any gentlemen should, and gave the waitress what I thought was the correct amount. I was quickly informed that I was not funny and that I could not pay for my bill with all the monopoly money in the world. I had to ask my date for money because I didnt have any ‘real’ cash…what an embarrassment!
     I later took her on a real date and paid for it with real money.

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185. 

     Louix

     October 24, 2012

     Over a decade ago I lived in the forest on a mountain 30 km west of Brisbane. I had just broken up from a highly dysfunctional relationship with with girlfriend which left me lonesome and in need of distraction. Having no car, I hitch-hiked down the mountain to drown my sorrows in a night out on the town. A new resident of our mountain village, a young rich kid picked me up in his flashy new Spyder sports car (we had a sweepstake going on our mountain as to how long before he would end up driving it off the very narrow, meandering and dangerous road to town) and we charged headlong down the mountain at great speed.

     We arrived in the suburbs and were slowed (only slightly) by an ambulance in full siren at which point the Spyder driver decided to flank the paramedic at speed all the way into the CBD. With nerves jangled from the helter skelter trip…but happy to be many miles away from my ex, I set forth to explore what the night had to offer. I settled on dancing the night away to a Irish band in a comfy tavern. By one in the morning I decided it prudent to make my way to the last bus departing for the foot of the mountain…at which point I would need to hitchhike or walk home back up the mountain.

     I decided to buy a coffee before leaving the city centre but was unable to find a shop that would accept my debit card. Finally, exhausted and frustrated and shortly before last bus call, I found a kindly cafe proprietor who took pity on my plight and made me a coffee on the house. And what a coffee it was. I still remember drinking it to this day. Splendid as they come, especially in time of great need! I knew I would probably have a long exhausting trip home and sure enough I ended up walking over ten kilometres up the mountain at two in the morning before my musician neighbor drove right past me (after finishing his own gig). Downtrodden I plodded on up the empty road. To my surprise, and severely aching feet, my neighbour ended up coming back down the mountain a short while later to pick me up after having to drive another five kilometres before he could find a place to turn around and collect me. I excused myself when we got home and declined to assist him to unload the band equipment and hobbled gingerly straight to bed. It was fortuitous that I was saved by a top coffee at an unbeatable price…!

     Now…….. If I had a banking system that works anywhere…..!!!

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186. 

     Crankyaussie

     October 24, 2012

     Walked all the way to the pub one night to buy some beers to take home, only to realise I’d left my wallet at home. Thankfully the woman serving knew me and let me have them “on the house” until the next day.

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187. 

     Khalil

     October 25, 2012

     Christmas Day 1999: I got called into work last minute on Christmas day at the hotel I was working at as an apprentice chef. Unfortunately, I realized there was no bus service, being Xmas and all. Even worse I had spent all my cash boozing at the pub the night before. I tried to hitch, but no one picks up bearded hitchhikers in the rain. Worse still people kept yelling merry Christmas at me. After walking about 5k I pretty much begged a cabbie to take me the rest of the way in exchange for me loose change. I eventually got to work just as the staff Xmas dinner and token beer finished. Fortunately there is always someone hungry and I swapped the barman

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     1. 

        Khalil

        October 25, 2012

        Double snap post! (damn mobile safari) Swapped the barman a toasted sandwich for a sneaky beer!

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188. 

     Andrew H

     October 25, 2012

     As an 18 year old who had only just moved out of home from a town of 300 to a city of 300,000 early this year I was more than excited to test out my new debit card at a local Woolies. I hadn’t received my pin but assumed I could simply sign for it as I had seen my mother do countless times. After loading up a basket full of groceries and reaching the counter, I bolted out of there when the cashier couldn’t make my card offer signature approval. I didn’t even know how a debit card worked! Since then I’ve never gone through a cashier again. Self serve. Every time.

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189. 

     Mila

     October 25, 2012

     Living in a country town, I do my shopping in a neighbouring city once or twice a month. On this occasion I hadn’t been for almost two months and so my shopping bill was well over $1500. Little did I know I was to receive a phone call from my bank telling me my account had been disabled because of suspicious spending! It was a laugh for my local branch manager and I who had to explain to the bank the way some country folk shop.

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190. 

     jubbing

     October 25, 2012

     Took a girl to a rather expensive restaurant (Rockpool if anyone is knows of it), and it was my first time out with her so I had decided to go big, and make a lasting impression. We had a rather enjoyable evening with their famous Wagyu Beef Burgers, some chips, and even dessert. Overall a great day and I was on quite a high, as one would expect – a great girl topped off by a great meal, what was not to enjoy?

     As it turns out, a lot. The bill slowly made it’s way to our table and as I took wallet out I suddenly realized that I was flat out of cash. The bill being close to $100, you can see how this would be an issue. No problem I told myself, just take out your card. As I fumbled around my wallet, it suddenly dawned on me that I had gone out the night before, had a drink too many and may have lost/misplaced my card. Oh crap. And I only realized when I was facing a bill.

     To cut a long story short, she ended up having to pay and she was not amused (I came off as a freeloader). Well I certainly made an impression. And not a good one at that. It was ridiculously embarrassing when you consider it.

     As for the girl? Well, that’s a story for another day.

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191. 

     buzz83

     October 25, 2012

     I was 15 and about to go on my first overseas trip with dad. We had about 3 hrs until the flight so dad and I decided to go and fill the car up with fuel for mum so she didn’t have to worry about it on the way home…

     One problem was that we had already converted all of our cash to the other currency and dad had hit the daily limit on his card. The other problem was that we had already filled the car with petrol and mum was 15km away with the other card. I was left as collateral until dad could return and pay for the petrol with mum’s card.

     Needless to say that 14 years on I always carry plenty of cash and have access to all of my accounts on mobile banking.

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192. 

     sparhawk0

     October 25, 2012

     I never believed a story like the ones I read here could happen to a guy like me, but … oh! Sorry – wrong site.

     When my (now-) wife and I went to Vanuatu for our wedding and honeymoon, we clocked up quite a bill. We’d been keeping an eye on our account with the resort, easily had enough money on the credit card to cover it, so I wasn’t all that worried. I’d also informed the back that I would be spending nearly 4 weeks overseas, and so there’d be some overseas transactions, and a slight delay on our payment.

     We were due to check out very early on a Monday morning, and were all set to enjoy our last weekend in paradise (it really is refreshing – much nicer, friendlier and laid back than Fiji or Bali – you should try it). Anyway, we had our last Saturday and Sunday all planned out, when at about 11:30 am on the Saturday – just as we were about to walk out the door – the bank that issued my credit card (no, not the one featured in this article, though I do bank with them and [gratuitous plug warning] do like that goMoney app) rang me to tell me they had cancelled my card because payment was 3 days late, and they’d noticed some unusual overseas transactions.

     After 10 minutes of arguing that I’d informed them weeks ago what was going on – and that they’d taken down the details to put a note against my account – the unhelpful little tin-pot dictator hung up on me. I rang the bank back, waited in a queue for another 15 minutes or so, and then got another staff member who was a lot more friendly and helpful (to be fair, every person at this ‘happy’ bank has been incredibly helpful, bar the aforementioned [insert expletive here]), but wasn’t able to get the restriction on my card lifted.

     He did suggest he could extend credit via the amount available on the card via a wire transfer, but as this was at about 11:55am on a Saturday, and the wire services close-down at 12:00, and we had a harbour to cross to get there, that wasn’t going to work. Eventually, I asked if there was a more senior or long-term staff member who knew the system better. He was able to track down a supervisor who was on another call, but was willing to call us when he was done.

     At this point, we were $15k of wedding and honeymoon down the hole, in a foreign (albeit, friendly) country, with no money but what we had in our pockets, and had no way to even pay for the taxi to get us to the airport. We were desperately contacting parents and friends to loan us the money, but as it was the weekend, there wasn’t much anyone could do. We couldn’t even delay our flights, because it was less than 48 hours notice, and we’d have to pay extra to do it. I confess, there was more than one mighty tear of not-at-all-girly-distress shed that day. I also may have cried.

     Eventually, the supervisor at … the bank – got back to us and said he’d managed to bork the system into lifting the hold until it refreshed. In theory, that was in its nightly batch-run, but being a non-weekday, that refresh could be anytime. He told us to run down to the reception of the resort pay the amount now just in case, and that he’d ring back in 20 minutes to see if it worked.

     My wife and I took off like scalded cats, crossed our fingers and ran the transaction through, drawing out an extra couple of hundred just to cover taxi fares, food, etc. It worked! One huge sigh of relief later and the supervisor rang us back to say he could see that the authorisation had been placed. We thanked him mightily for his help.

     It was all OK now, but nearly 4 weeks of relaxing in paradise was ruined in less than an hour. We were more wrecked than before we started, and clocked up over $400 of overseas calls as a result. Thankfully, BankW… – the bank – agreed that there’d be an error, and even reimbursed us the cost of the calls.

     No offer to cover a new wedding and honeymoon, though.

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193. 

     Jim

     October 25, 2012

     I was in the middle of nowhere and starving, I went to the closest store and ordered a burger, when the burger was ready to go I went to pay, it was then I realised I had no money on me. I was starving but the man at the counter just scoffed and laughed while he ate the burger in front of me with an evil grin. That evil green will be the source of many nightmares to come.

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194. 

     puddiepants

     October 25, 2012

     I my younger days before I new all about ebay, me and my friends were regular shoppers at the local computer fair (it was on like one Sunday a month). This particular day I was planning to buy a new pair of speakers for my PC so when I found the pair I wanted I decided that I would try and bargain them down for a better price.

     The speakers were $90, I told them I only had $85 (for some reason thinking this was going to be a heaps good deal to get $5 off). They didn’t accept that, so I wandered off and came back about 10 minutes later and again offered $85. They refused again. I wandered off and came back another 2 or 3 times before they finally said that they’d accept the $85. I opened up my wallet and realised I only had $90 (a $50 and 2 $20’s)… I couldn’t give them the $90 and ask for change after screwing them around so many times so I had to walk away without any speakers…

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195. 

     randydragon

     October 25, 2012

     My wife and I had planned a romantic evening considering it was our 6 month wedding anniversary. She planned to cook dinner and organised for us to watch Drive on DVD and it was my job to quickly go past the supermarket and pick up some chocolates and snacks for the movie. My wallet was upstairs so I grabbed $20 bucks from my wife as I was only planning on getting chocolates and chips. After I grabbed my chocolates and chips I realised I had ran out of supplies for our romantic night so I discretely grabbed a box of rubbers. I quickly went to the self checkout only to find out they were out of order. Already embarrassed that I had to purchase the rubbers from a checkout I quickly raced over to the express checkout. Anxiously waiting at the checkout my younger sister who also happens to be at the super market is two people behind me in the queue. My younger sister enlighten to the fact that my wife and I are celebrating our 6 month anniversary decided to ask me what my plans were. I said dinner at home and a movie and I am here to get some chocolates and snacks. All my items are on the counter and to hide them I place the basket on the counter and tried distracting my sister by talking to her. So far no one probably saw anything but I had a feeling people where checking out what I purchased for our romantic night. My sister forgot something so she left her item there and ran off to go get something. Finally everything was in the bag and all I had to do was pay for the items. When the amount came over $20 I panicked, I looked to my sister to borrow some money but only she wasn’t there. I told the cashier I only had $20 so he suggested that I remove one of the items. Since there was a queue I told him to remove the items in the bag. The chips and chocolate were in bag one and the rubbers along with the icecream were in the second bag. So he decides to pull out the tub of ice cream in one hand and the box of rubbers in the second hand and told me pick which one you don’t want. Ready to kill him and then kill myself due to embarrassment I just stood there saying nothing, the guy behind me quickly realises the situation and taps me on the shoulder and said he will give me $3. As I turn around to face the guy to quickly take the $3 and get out of there as I didn’t want to make the decision of picking the rubbers over the icecream I notice all the people in queue are trying to hold their laughter in including my sister. I took the $3, and got the hell out of there. I have not stepped a foot back inside that supermarket since.

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196. 

     grubeck

     October 25, 2012

     My girlfriend and I stayed at a friend of friend’s house in Italy. She was extremely hospitable, constantly putting herself out for our sake. Last night her and her partner took us out to dinner, choosing the nicest restaurant in Perugia to showcase the local food to us. Amazing steak and fish meals with antipasto, great local wines, desserts, coffee, lemoncello.

     I knew it would be expensive and that they would insist on paying, but wanted to pay them back as a token of gratitude. During the dinner I snuck away and tried to collude with the owner/chef that I will sorting out the bill when the time came, no matter what. Unfortunately my friend’s partner could easily have played a bit part in a mafia film in mannerism and dress sense, and the chef refused to help, saying he couldn’t cross locals. When the time came, he even told everyone about my conspiracy attempt to insert some humour. Our companions were in order: shocked, angry, amused, and finally after much back and forth, agreeable. Feeling elated at winning the etiquette challenge and rubbing my shoulder from the overly friendly but hard punch by the boyfriend, I opened my wallet only to find that I had not a single note in it… No problem, reached for the bankcard… only to have the chef came back apologetic after my debit Visa wasn’t recognised (kept happening in Europe). So sitting at the table with everyone, I turned to my girlfriend, who looked on in bemused horror as I asked her to pay on my behalf. Then had to trust my girlfriend will be okay with this while I argued back down our companions who were now trying to pay again all the while the chef looking uncomfortable.

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197. 

     bunnychicken

     October 25, 2012

     Not being able to pay all the bills that were set up from my account as my account was fraudently emptied…I spent a month living on crackers until the bank recovered the money, I was mortified I had to contact every company…Im sure they thought I was lying:(((((((

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198. 

     yodadacoda

     October 25, 2012

     I bring you a tale not only of terrible embarrassment, but also of generosity and jubilation.

     Once upon a time lived a lowly corporate employee (me) and his wife. For many months our hero was stranded in a strange land called Sydney, banished there by a great evil known as “Corporation”, until such time as he had completed his quest (training course). Every weekend, our hero made the four hour trek (drive) to return to his homeland (Canberra) to visit his dear love, whom he had recently wed.

     It was on one such journey that our hero stopped at a nearby tavern (servo) for some beer (coffee) for himself, and maize and water (petrol) for his trusty steed (car). After his worthy steed had eaten his fill, and our hero had himself procured supplies for the remainder of his journey, he was shocked to discover that his coin purse (wallet) had somehow been misplaced, possibly lifted by some trolls encountered earlier, and he was unable to pay his fee. What was he to do?

     It is at this point, dear reader, that I must introduce you to the true hero of this piece. For just as our lowly corporate employee was floundering and the owner of the establishment, a huge goblin (big even by goblin standards) was preparing to end the employee’s puny life, did a noble knight in gleaming armour stride into the tavern and, with a massive blow from his broadsword, did fell the goblin and bequeath unto the employee sufficient gold to pay his debt.

     When asked how he might repay the knight, the employee was told no such thing was necessary, that the simple act of kindness would pay its own rewards. Crying tears of joy, the employee thanked the knight profusely. The knight, with a knowingly benevolent smile, handed the barmaid some gold for his own horse’s ration before riding off into the sunset.

     Prologue
     The employee made his way home that day and regaled all his friends with the tales of the knight in gleaming armour who had saved his skin. He now lives in the land of Melbourne, away from the corporation. He never saw the knight again.
     The knight in gleaming armour rides the lands on his noble steed doing good for all the people and generally being an awesome guy.
     The missing coin purse was eventually found in the employee’s saddle bag (under the driver’s seat).

     Disclaimer: Based on a true story. Some parts of the story suffer from severe artistic license.

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199. 

     belladogga

     October 25, 2012

     Easy – I lived for five years with a sociopath (literally). We’d go out for dinner – his ‘account wouldn’t work’; we’d be standing at the supermarket checkout with a trolley-full – his ‘account wouldn’t work’; he’d go storming off into his bank branch the day after, yet never seemed comfortable if I came to stand beside him at the counter….hummm. He’d make a to-do about ordering some large household appliance or installation of something: and then ALWAYS find reasons to complain about it, insist on not paying until the mythical problem was fixed….and then never pay. Insisted on buying new cars: we were tracked by a finance collection company for years afterward…. On it went.
     Now, 12 years later, I’m poor, but everything’s paid for. Someone’s karma will come back to bite him, one day…’over the rainbow’. I’m gagging for a new phone – keep lurking on all the Galaxy models review and prices sites. Can’t afford one, so hopefully MY ‘good’ karma from all those years of hell will come in with a win!

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200. 

     bobbucat

     October 25, 2012

     I live in Perth. My wife found for sale online a diamond ring that she fell in love with. It was advertised at $5,000, which she thought was a steal. But it had been for sale for a long time. On Sunday, 30 September, she played cool and rang to offer $4,000. The owner said that she already had an offer of $4.000, but would accept $4,250 if she had it in hand by the same time (1 pm) the next day. Otherwise, she would immediately accept the $4,000 offer. There was only one way to achieve this. We had to deposit some money (we had some cash) into our bank account, and then use the goMoney app to transfer $4,250 using the owner’s mobile phone number. The next morning (Monday) my beloved (who is a very forceful lady that has me very scared) had to go to work before our bank opened. She left me with one instruction: “Buy that ring! And if there have been any other offers, go up to $5,000” I don’t know why she added: “Or you are dead!” Sharp as a tack, I realised that Sydney was two hours in front of Perth, so I had until 11 am to pay. I casually walked to the bank and deposited the cash. Then I thought I would play a game with the owner by hanging off until the last moment. I made the transfer via goMoney at 10.55 am. What I hadn’t realised was that morning Sydney (but not Perth) had gone on to daylight saving time. It was too late to pay. And my mobile was ringing. My wife!

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201. 

     Ben

     October 25, 2012

     Every transaction I make is awkward if there’s contact.

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202. 

     revarawr

     October 25, 2012

     I used to study in a small town in the state of Wisconsin in the US and it was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone and there are literally two gas stations in this town. I was running low on gas one night driving home so I stopped at a gas station to fill up my tank. I filled up my tank with $90 worth of gas and then proceeded to the counter to pay for it. For some reason, my card declined and I wasn’t able to get through to the card company to figure out what the problem was.

     Fortunately, I was the treasurer of a club at school and we recently had a bake sale to raise funds for a cancer victim so I could use the money from that first and replace it later. However, it was mostly in $1 bills and it took me awhile to count up the money to hand it over to the guy. After doing so, the gas attendants made cheeky remarks asking me if I worked as a stripper part time and asked me how much I made in an hour. Needless to say, I was extremely embarrassed and this incident haunted me as word got around town and my school and my nickname from that day onward was “Miss Stripper”. My friends still refer to me as that today and I haven’t been back to that gas station since.

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203. 

     Sean Warhurst

     October 25, 2012

     Moving all of our possessions from Melbourne to Albury, NSW, we had to rent a trailer and make a rather extensive drive. Not taking into account the extra weight and wind resistance having a negative impact on our fuel estimates, we found ourselves stuck in Glenrowan at a 24 hour service station waiting for midnight to clock over, where my pay would be put into my account. Afteran extremely monotonous wait, my partner took my wallet to the ATM to withdraw the cash, only to find that she had left my card in a machine back in Melbourne. Miles away from civilisation, the only recourse we had was to either sell my body or to try and sell off a few household items. So, I found myself approaching Truck Drivers like some street vendor selling stolen goods, trying to convince them to purchase my Blu Ray player with all the finesse of Tim Shaw from Demtel. After an hour of degrading myself and using every sales pitch under the sun, a kindly Trucker took pity on our situation and offered to give me Twenty dollars with no strings attached. As much as it humbled me, I had to reluctantly accept and thankfully we made it home. An embarrassing situation, to be sure!

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204. 

     techjunkie

     October 25, 2012

     I took my father in-law grocery shopping on Christmas eve and after filling two trolleys with food for all the in-laws we got to the checkout and my eftpos card was rejected as the bill was over the daily limit. Had to leave the 2 trolleys in the store coolroom and drive to the bank to withdraw cash over the counter. 24 years ago this Christmas and they still won’t let me forget!

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205. 

     muddy

     October 26, 2012

     When I was 16 I made a pathetic attempt to impress the girl working register at my local grocery store.

     Just got a shiny new card in the mail so I decide to go to the store and show it off.
     I thought I’d be a little cheeky and buy a pack of XL condoms hoping it would be a conversation starter. I walk in, the store is pretty empty and she’s the only person on register, perfect conditions for my plan. I grab the largest size condoms they have and head to the checkout. I’m greeted by a friendly “Hi, how are you today?” I respond “I’m fine, and yourself?” “I’m doing pretty great” she says a little more casually “just this thanks” I say coolly as I slide my item over, her head was turned down as she scanned it through but I think I catch a glimpse of a smile as she does so. So far so good. I reach for my brand new card and hold it out to her face up so she could see it clearly as if it were a Mentos ad; Suddenly a horrible thought flashes through my mind, “this is a brand new card, BRAND. NEW. You haven’t activated it yet you fool!” but realise too late as she puts her hand on the card to take it “I can’t pay, what do I do?” I think to myself, When I’m taken over by some sort of primal panic reflex which refuses to let me let go of my card. Now we’re locked in some bizarre tug o’war fighting over what I know is an impotent card, after what seemed like an eternity, though realistically couldn’t have been more than a few seconds I yanked my card from her hands muttered a decidedly feeble “sorry” making sure not to look her in the eyes and hastily exited the store, narrowly dodging 2 old ladies on the way out.

     I haven’t been back to that store in 6 years, even though it’s literally 2 minutes from my house my shame and embarrassment is so great I do my shopping at a store 20 minutes away

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206. 

     kingbidois

     October 26, 2012

     Here it is. A few years ago I was with a girl I had only recently met, having lunch at a cafe together for the first time. After getting to know each other and having a nice time we went to leave and being the chivalrous gentleman I am, I told her to put away her purse. Well, we got to the front register and I handed over my eftpos card to settle up while she is stood there for those awkward few seconds that come along while someone you have just met enters their pin.

     Without a care in the world, I turned back to her to ask what she had planned for the rest of the day only to have the staff member interrupt me and in a clear voice he announced – it has declined. I was embarrassed beyond words and had no other way to pay, so to save face I told him to try it again. I pulled every excuse out of the book too, trying to keep the heat off of myself in front of this new girl I was trying to impress. I said I knew there was money in there, I told them I had just been paid the day before, I blamed the card, I blamed the bank, I blamed pay role at work.

     The situation got no better after about 4 attempts. I knew at this point it was going to get any better and just wanted the roof to fall in on me or the ground to open up under me. To top it off, she tried to reassure me, saying it was OK and agreeing that the bank or work must have made a mistake with my pay, which only made it worse for me cause we both knew we were just saying those things, but didnt mean any of it.

     In the end she put me out of my misery and got out her card to pay. Suffice to say, I had never felt worse or more embarrassed before and as a result, always check how much I have before going out with just my card these days.

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207. 

     Vincent

     October 26, 2012

     I was out in the city for the day, keeping busy. It was 2:00 PM and I hadn’t eaten since my very early breakfast. I pop into a small cafe to grab some food. A grilled sandwich, milkshake, and a little baked treat for afternoon dessert. It totalled $16.75. The girl takes my order and goes out the back and didn’t come back. She’d obviously finished for the day or was taking a break. As I’m waiting at the counter, I open my wallet to get my money ready. My heart sinks; “Oh crap, no cash.” I had no cards either. Just a few coins in my pocket. I’d emptied my wallet the night before as I was out for a big night and didn’t want anything but cash and ID. (Why? I’d never done this before. Stupid!) Another girl who mustn’t have seen me make my order gathers my food and brings it to the collection counter. She calls; “Grilled sandwich?”. No response. Again; “Grilled sandwich?” Silence. I was too embarrassed to say I couldn’t pay. A couple who saw me order knew it was mine and stared bewildered at me. There was a glint of annoyance in their glare as I continued to ignore the girl serving. Oh god, the awkward stiffness in my body. I tried to act casual, but u must’ve looked like a right git. The girl behind the counter gave up after calling a few more times and came to serve me. I pretended that nothing unusual was up. I ordered a coffee to take away, payed with the few coins I had, and escaped as fast as I could. Later that week I revisited the cafe and silently popped $16.75 in front of the till when no one was looking. I have no idea what I was thinking. I acted like an awkward teenager. I blame it on the hangover. What a horribly uncomfortable memory.

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208. 

     werdnanostaw

     October 26, 2012

     Last year my partner and I drove down the west coast of the former Yugoslavia.

     Despite the fact that they have their own currencies we knew that at each border crossing we would need Euros to pay for visa or vignette charges or even inside the countries we would need Euros for things like National Park entry charges so we had taken a stock of them when we left Euroland.

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignette_(road_tax)

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plitvice_Lakes_National_Park

     https://www.google.com.au/search?q=plitvice+national+park&num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&pwst=1&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nzuJUK_5JLCfmQWdx4DQAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1680&bih=935

     When we were crossing from Serbia into Bulgaria we needed 11 Euro for a 1 month vignette.

     http://www.dalnicni-znamky.com/en/vignette-highway-toll-bulgaria.html

     We found that we only had a 10 Euro note left!

     Before we leave a country we always try and get rid of any currency we have. We had been particularly thorough in getting rid of any Serbian Dinars we had.

     The ATM at the border was out of order so we couldn’t get any Bulgarian Levs.

     We couldn’t go back into Serbia as we didn’t have any currency to pay their entry charges.

     It was starting to look as if we were going to spend the rest of our lives stuck at the border.

     Then a thought struck me – “Where’s the Magic Euro?”

     Before you can use the shopping trollies at most supermarkets in Europe you have to insert a 1 Euro coin into a slot that releases the chain that holds them in place.

     We keep the same Euro for that purpose that we call the Magic Euro. I rummaged in the centre console and found it.

     It turned out that it was a magic Euro because it released us.

     We were able to buy the vignette we needed from the strangely track suit uniformed official vignette sellers and proceed on our way.

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209. 

     Nerissa Rogerson

     October 26, 2012

     Recently I realised I had forgotten my wallet right after filling up my car with petrol.

     Not an uncommon scenario so I began the walk of shame inside, trying to figure out what I would say. I the line dwindled towards two registers, I kept looking at the jovial women on the left and hoping she would server me. But no, I ended up explaining the situation to the rather rough male teller who I can only assume was on a prison release program.

     I wanted to duck home and grab my wallet while he wanted me to leave something of value. The only thing I had was my phone which due to my work and client privacy concerns, I was not going to hand over to the gorilla.

     Things got heated. I gave them all my rego details and said I was leaving. The teller ( now upgraded in my mind to escaped mass murderer – why he was working in a Caltex on the M4 instead of fleing I will never know) only got more irate. Somehow he was convinced that it was my master plan to steal petrol with crazy lies like, I forgot my wallet.

     Annoyed, embarrassed and just wanting to get out of there, I said I would be back in 20 minutes to pay and if they didn’t like to call the cops. Anger glinted in the tellers eye but I felt protected by those flimsy wires that stop people stealing cigarettes or something.

     Just as I turned to go an inhumanly strong hand clamped down on my shoulder and a gravelly voice told said “I think you better come with me”. I am pretty sure I would have needed new underwear right then and there if it wasn’t for the fact that every muscle in my body was tensed incredibly tightly.

     Turning around I was pleased to find that rather than than what I could only imagine was the tellers serial killer brother, I was instead being help captive by can only be described as Police Chief Wiggum in the flesh. Mollified, I stepped aside.

     Turns out that is illegal to just leave the petrol station but after a nice friendly chat that gave my muscles time to unclench, Mr Wiggum offered to spot me the money. I of course got his details and returned it along with a some doughnuts! (just kidding, it was wine).

     While certainly an unforgettable experience, being able to pay with my phone would have probably helped me stave off quite a few gray hairs!

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210. 

     Lindsay Handmer

     October 26, 2012

     After my car broke down, my friend was towing me back home down the M2 motorway.

     He paid the toll up front but the toll operator was pretty convinced that despite me considering myself a trailer, I needed to pay the toll too.

     Of course, I had no cash, my mate had no cash and the traffic was banking up.

     The toll operator angrily filled out a form for me to pay later. Which promptly blew out the window about a kilometer down the road.

     Being indignant about the whole affair, I ignored the whole thing until the State Debt Recovery Office kindly cancelled my licence!

     If only I could have paid with my phone…

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211. 

     sam16

     October 26, 2012

     At the airport in Bali,about to leave for Australia,oh crap,apparently you have to pay to leave.Having blown all my remaining Bali dollars tipping my driver,you can imagine how embarrassed I felt having to beg for money to leave and considering its illegal to beg I was expecting to visit Chapelle instead of boarding my flight.Luckily my sad,on the verge of tears face,saved the day and a lovely Aussie couple came to the rescue…Im sure I saw security laughing in my direction.

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212. 

     mandynwal

     October 27, 2012

     Only just last week I was paying my bills and rent. I had just enough money to get petrol. So I filled her up and went in to pay and sadly left my purse at home. SOOOO embarrassing. A BIG line of people waiting. I didnt even have my i.d as it was in my purse. The attendant made me call someone who could pay for me. He wasn’t going to let me go to my home.. 2 seconds away..so close I could have walked home to get it. All that for petrol.

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213. 

     taylorw

     October 30, 2012

     My story sucks!
     I was sent to the Philippines for work for 8 days. Sounds glamorous. Its not. There were some nice parts, but basically, it was super populated (the #1 most densely populated place in the world). Anyway, work trip was over, heading back home to the US, Austin specifically. I decided to treat myself and extend my layover in Japan to 48 hours, instead of 2 hours. So this way I could see Tokyo, as I’ve never been. Cost me like $300, which was a little rough. Took an hour long train ride from the airport to downtown Tokyo. Stayed with an amazing CouchSurfing(.org) host, and explored the city. Fast forward. 8 hours until my flight departs. My Japanese CouchSurfing host tells me to take a taxi to a particular train station, prints me a map, circles where I am now at his place, where the train station is, and where the airport is. He said, “no big deal, leave ahead of time and you’ll be fine”. He leaves, so I’m hanging out alone, waiting to depart. 5 hours out, and I get a taxi. I show him the map, and point to the train station I have to go to. He says approximately 1,000 Japanese words to me, which I do not understand. And I point to the map, saying “sorry” in Japanese, and then saying “I only speak English”. “Hai!” he says, after understanding my dilemma. We drive. He pulls over 5 minutes later. Asks for my map, and says another 5,000 words to me in Japanese. I point to the circled train station on the map. This should be easy. It was about 7 miles to the train station, max. And I had to be there. We continue on after I stare at him blankly and point to the map more. We drive, we drive. He pulls over, and speaks 10,000 words to me in Japanese while pointing all over the map. I point back to the circled train station on the map. He stares at me. We continue on. The skyscrapers of Tokyo are disappearing. We’re getting into the suburbs, into a small city village of sorts. He pulls over, and speaks 15,000 words to me in Japanese while pointing all over the map. I point back to the circled train station on the map. He stares at me. We continue on. He stops, calls a cop over. Takes my map and shows the cop. They both seem to positively agree everything is OK. Cool, good good. He points to a terminal, and says “you go”. I pay him almost $80 USD (yes, Japan is that expensive), which was the last of my actual cash. One hour gone, 3 to go. Supposed to be there 2 hours prior (international flight). Exactly enough time. I walk over to the terminal. After 15 minutes of being confused, I realize, this is a bus terminal, no one speaks English, we’re outside of Tokyo, and we went in the wrong direction. The next BUS that will go to the WRONG airport, arrives in 30 minutes. The next BUS that will go to the correct airport will arrive in approximately 2 hours. I’m screwed. In the middle of nowhere, outside of Tokyo. My phone doesn’t have service, because I’m in Japan, and I’m not rich enough to have an international calling plan. I think about my account and how much I have left after this work trip (gifts for friends and family, food, drinking, etc). Ok, this is going to suck. But I’m getting a taxi, all the way to the airport. The train took one hour, without traffic, and it was one of those awesome super Japanese trains. So I figured a taxi would take 90 minutes. As I mentioned, I’m outside of Tokyo. Taxis aren’t everywhere. It takes me 15-20 minutes to even see one, which fortunately was empty. I run into the middle of traffic to wave him down. He speaks a few words of English. He sees I’m in a panic. He is also shocked that I would need a taxi to the airport, not very common, as its a 90 minute drive. He finally agrees, as this is my last shot to get home to the USA. Forgetting to mention, my back was thrown out. Weird for me, being a relatively fit young guy. I had to take a wheelchair to my original flight’s departure gate because it was so bad. Anyway, in severe pain, and with no time left, I wanted to be home. He barely agrees, after strongly suggesting that I should take a train instead. I’ve given up. I know it will be expensive. Enough talk, lets go. I sit quietly in the back of the taxi, on the trip to the airport, reflecting. I see signs that say the airport is quite some distance away, slowly but surely, the distance, in KM, becomes less and less, as my fare becomes more and more. The first $50 was understood. Once we hit $100, and I realized we weren’t close, I was worried. “$150 will be the maximum, tip included” I thought. They don’t accept tips in Japan, but I was delirious. $150 BLASTS by, $160, $170, we’re now at $180. I’m doing the Japanese Yen to USD conversion on my phone literally every minute. $182, $185, $187, $189, $190… $204. We’re still driving. I’m seeing some more signs for the airport. When we finally pull up to the curb, I’m late, 90 minutes to my flight (even though they want you there 2 hours ahead of time). I’m late, but I’m there. Thank you thank you thank you. Here is my card. Lets go. Final fare… $280 USD and some change. Screw it. Let me go home. Card swipe. Hurry up man! Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Duuuuude. I point to give him my card back. I show him the piece of paper-over-the-card trick, which works when a card reader is having issues. Nope. Negative beeping. I only have one card. No checks. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. I tell him “ATM, inside, ATM”. He agrees, keeping my bags in the car. I run in. Back shooting pain. Closest ATM is a solid 300 yards away. Ok. ATM. Insert card, choose English, withdrawal cash. Negative beeping. Says it can’t read the card. There is another model of an ATM next to it. Same thing. I try this slow process a minimum of 5 times. Nothing. I look at the back of my credit/debit card. There is a tiny tiny scratch across the metallic backing. I lick the card, put it in the machine. Nothing. I lather the card in my spit, and shove it in. Nope. A Japanese cop sees me and curiously comes over to make sure I’m not stealing, or something. I don’t have time for authority and tell him in English “I’m not interested”. Freaking out. Card soaked in spit. No wifi at the airport, no way to do anything. I slowly walk the 300 yards back to the waiting taxi driver and my bags, admitting defeat. I sit back down, wipe the card off very carefully so he doesn’t have to touch my saliva, since he’s innocent. I tell him the ATM doesn’t work. He asks for a check. I say none. He asks for another card, I tell him I don’t have one. The taxi doors lock. He mentions the word police. We start moving forward. It went from defeat, back to panic. Fortunately, we pull over only 15 feet ahead. Doors still locked. I show him the scratch. He doesn’t seem to understand. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. Card swipe. Negative beeping sound. I take the card back from him, he reluctantly let me see it. I point out the scratch again. He gets it. He makes a few more calls. 55 minutes until my flight to the USA. I point at the number pad on his card reader. He tells me to keep my hands back. So I pull out my (now dead, after all the Yen to USD conversions on the trip) phone. And pointing at the CC #s, I show him on my phone “4”, “7”, “4”, “4”, etc. Then pointing to his card reader, hoping he can figure out to understand to put it in manually. He gets it. And apparently that doesn’t work. Time winds down. Nothing. He’s on the phone. I’ve given up. I figure I’ll become an American homeless person in Japan for a few days. I hear him yell in a positive voice from the front. The phone call did something, whoever he was talking to suggested a way out. He takes my card, asks for a piece of paper that I had, and a pencil. He does the old school scratch the numbers from the card with a pencil trick. He takes the paper, gives me my card, smiles, says “thank you” in Japanese. Doors unlock. I’m in shock. Ok….. “bye bye” he says, in English. I get out of the taxi and run to security. They yell at me for a while about being late. Finally I have to be personally escorted through security, all the way to my gate, and onto the plane by a airport security personnel. They told me to not go more than 5 feet away from them or something. I board the plane, a sea of passengers are staring forward at me, a 99.9% full plane waiting for one passenger, me, to board. Their eyes and faces all locked on me as I get to my seat in the middle/back of the plane, along with aforementioned security guy. I was smiling at this point. Screw it, I’m going home, and getting a new ATM card.

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