I've been denied entry to Thailand - Now What ! ?

[RKASA]

I see from a fast search this is not a new problem - most are achieved already so could not bump one.

Like I do every month about this time I went to the same AEON ATM inside the plaza in the morning when they opened at 11:00. I always use this ATM and only once each month and it simply said

:contact your back and returned the card

OK fine

Their cute AEON girl that watches everyone using the ATM saw it and noticed the rejection herself - it must be on cam too - I got no money from that ATM and they know that.

I get home go online to find out what up with my card status and see three charges to my account for that same amount just today and I am broke - my checking is flat out gone. empty

I return to AEON and they give me a note with a number and tell me it is my problem nothing they can do and call my bank. Wow thanks

I return home go online and file a stop payment but its all messed up and I don't know when or even if I can get anything back. I am going to have to live on advances this month while they find out how AEON took all the money from my checking account this morning.

Has anyone got there money back? I asked for 22000 and it has gone nuts processing claims to my account of over 66000 already just today - this bug is in the AEON system that is for sure and seems they could have done something about at least stopping it from taking more money.

BoA has been told that any and all ATM activity in the month of July on my account is fraud and they are working on it I guess, but something tell me this is going to be a major stress test.

<deleted>????

[MrRealDeal]

Well the good news is the people who will solve it are the people at your bank not the ATM people .... they were right to send you to your bank , you will get your money back eventually, it happens, just chill out for a while.

[Orac]

Had a similar problem using a UK bank ATM card a couple of months ago but an SCB machine - everything looked to go through fine but no money came out. Tried again and got a contact your bank message and card was spat out. Tried in a different bank and same problem. When I rang my bank they told me because the first transaction had notified them that the withdrawl was being made it had put me up to my daily limit which is why it didn't work the second time and I would have to wait for the next day when my limit was reset. They told me to wait to see if the charge was automatically creditted which should happen if the actual debit didn't come through from the Thai bank and, if still there in 7 days to call them again. 24hrs later there was a credit on my account.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

it's definitely not the first time this has happened with Aeon. I have read about it before.

Keep us informed how it resolves.

Edited July 2, 2013 by CobraSnakeNecktie

[thrilled]

It's messed up.The way I'm reading this is,go to the bank while ya still have cash.That way if it messes up you'll still have money.Or have A back up bank.

[Pib]

Yeap, notifying your card issuing bank is the correct method to get the funds credited back to your account. Your bank will do the tracing of the transaction back to the ATM along with the AEON folks getting involved. I've heard when this happens the messages that flow between banks results in each ATM reporting how much money was transmitted to other banks as being issued in comparison to what is recorded in the machine as actually being withdrawn/spit out along with a physical money count. Takes a few days but you'll get your account credited. Quite a few posts on ThaiVisa talking about how this happened in ATM of Bank XYZ...AEON ATMs definitely have no corner on this market. Apparently a lot of checks and balances are built into ATMs and associated support systems to confirm whether money was spit out or not.

Knock on wood but I have been using AEON ATMs several times per week for around 5 years and never had a problem...never had a problem with any bank's ATM correctly recording whether money was spit out or not....I've had a few where the transaction errored out right at the very end (on AEON ATMs and Thai bank ATMs...communications glitches I guess) and I thought for sure a charge would hit my bank account but no charge did.

[RKASA]

The multi requests have cleared and only the single one is still in process holding on my account so that is progress, only looking at 700.00US locked up. On my second return to the bank the ATM was out of service and on the third trip an hour later the crew was there with it open and being worked on. I don't know if that is related because I see it so often at that bank. Seems they do lots of refilling and other work on the one inside the plaza. BoA said they can fix this and looks like they have fixed part of it already.

Having an ATM error out on me was nothing new - that is why I waited until I got home to just check on my card status and maybe have a try the next day - I was shocked that a charge would have even shown up given the messages I saw and what I had done. The transaction was canceled and the card spit out the second I hit enter after the amount. Locking up my funds after an error is not something I have seen before.

[i claudius]

I had this happen with an Aeon machine ,i was told to get in touch with my bank ,i did and they refunded my money ,but said that they had the right to take it back up to 10 months if it was found that Aeon had paid me out . never heard any more ,that was a few years ago .

[RKASA]

Update the last remaining drawing for the atm that came up on my account was showing in process so I had to wait according to BoA and see if would be rejected

- but it cleared -

AEON got my money but I didn't and there is no way with an AEON employee standing right there that saw the message on the atm at the same time I did they can claim I got the money. There was no money out of that atm. It never got that far in the transaction.

I have to wait for claim forms in the mail and file a police report in the morning over possible atm fraud asking for investigation of the tapes and a statements from the staff etc - why did the atm go straight into maintenance right after this and who has my 22k?.

[Dr Dre]

Wanted to say this is EXACLY what happened July 2 around lunchtime in Sattahip ...(with AEON) .... what I learned is when you see contact ur bank Stop right there .... tendency is to think ... did I put the wrong pin in ??? Try again ....that got u a second charge ..... Hmmmmm requesting too much??? let me try a lower amount ...Dang ....That got u a third charge ... then the unfortunately the odes is on you to contact ur bank. Only positive in all this is all transactions in an ATM are recorded .... If no cash is dispensed then the bank knows this .......in a nutshell ......STOP when it tells you to contact ur bank :-)

[glegolo]

It did happen to me at my ATM (AEON) at tesco Lotus in Chaiyaphum. I asked for 25.000 baht, and when the stack of money came out of the ATM, it got stucked. I managed with a little force to get out 6.000 baht, but that was all.......

AEON had a small ofiice just round the corner, and I went there, they spoke OK english. They called themself down to AEON-Bangkok, and they noted my transaction for future reference.....

They told me to come back tomorrow and pick up my ATM-card which was still inside the ATM-machine..... I went straight home, called up my bank in Sweden but first of course I checked what has been withdrawed from my account. Of course all 25.000 was taken away from my account, even that the girl at Tesco Lotus AEON opened up the machine and recovered my missing money. They kept my ATM-card and they kept my 19.000 baht....

Anyhow I called my bank in Sweden, and all they could do was to kill my present ATM-card so no more withdrawel will be made by ATM. They also offered me money as a favour. They told me that I have to wait for one week before AEON will confirm this transaction and without that confirmation my swedish bank couldn´t do anything. The withdrawel was reserved at my account but the actual withdrawel will be made after maximum 7 days....

After sooo many minutes on the phone with my bank I got it sorted out eventually and they issued a new bankcard for me and after the seveth day my 19.000 baht was back on my account..... I like the handling of all this and cannot complain more than on the thai AEON. They had my card already after 5 minutes and they did also have my 19.000 baht hanging lose their in the machine....

But the made me come back the day after to pick up my already cancelled ATM-card.... So with a little bit more finess I would have been happier.

Glegolo

[tfc]

The exact same thing happened to me and eventually got sorted by my Australian bank but took over 3 months.

[DekDaeng]

Recommend checking account balance _AT ATM_ before and after withdrawing, and photographing it. Yes, you can do it.

Not had this problem yet, my problem (well, back when I used AEON) was the supposedly mythical 150 baht charge being 'non mythical' -

Check fer yerself.

[xen]

Also had this problem with AEON at the new McValue supermarket in Sukhumvit 71. Try to withdraw 10,000 and only get 7000. Girls at AEON that try to entice you to sign up for a account lok blank and only say -Contact your bank. !!!

[kurtmartens]

I used Bank of America (which I think you said this account is with?). Two months ago I was getting cash out of an ATM when the power went down .... oddly it spit out my card though. Went home, looked online and the 10,000 Baht I wanted had been removed from my account but obviously I didn't get it from the ATM. Called BofA and they credited back my account within an hour with the money and opened up an investigation between the two banks .... They should do the same for you. They are pretty could about issuing temporary credits until things are completed between the two banks.

I find BofA pretty good about these things ... this wasn't the first issue I have had traveling and they always credit the money back to the account while they sort it out between banks and I have yet to have them take the money back once they credit it.

[watcharacters]

,

After hearing about too many unfortunate events with ATM's i now only use my Cirrus/Visa card in an ATM at a well known bank in a very public place.

Debit that is. I don't care to use any credit card in SEA.

Edited July 4, 2013 by watcharacters

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As I mentioned in a separate thread here, when I went to my local AEON ATM last night to do a larger withdrawal for rent money, the ATM screen displayed a message I've never seen from them before -- withdrawals limits to 20,000 baht per transaction.

I note that just because, the OP mentioned he had tried to do a 22,000 baht withdrawal....

Because this problem with ATMs is one that crops up periodically ... I've recommend the following:

Anytime you're going to do a larger withdrawal at AEON, break it up into two half portion withdrawals.... Or, do a small withdrawal as a test first, and then withdraw the bulk amount in a second transaction.

That way, if there's any problem, you'll find out before your account gets dinged for the full larger amount. And, since AEON isnt charging any fee and most U.S. banks only charge a % fee for foreign ATM withdrawals, for most people, there's no downside to doing two smaller withdrawals back-to-back instead of one much larger one.

Also, I never keep all my liquid cash funds in one account... I always keep them divided into at least two different accounts with two different cards. That way, if anything like the OP's incident occurs, or if one of my cards is lost or stolen or frozen for any reason, I always have a different card and account with available funds in reserve.

Similar to Pib, I've done hundreds of AEON ATM withdrawals over the years, and never had the OP's problem. But I certainly recognize that it can and does occur at AEON and other Thai bank ATMs... So it's best to take precautions.

I used to do 20,000+ baht single ATM withdrawals... Now I never do.

PS to the OP - you know if you're using a Bank of America debit card in Thailand, you're paying a lot of ATM/foreign currency fees to BofA for doing so... even though AEON isn't charging you any fee??? And unfortunately, BofA is one of those U.S. banks that charges a flat fee amount for foreign ATM withdrawals... I believe $5 per plus 1% of the amount withdrawn. So that makes doing dual ATM withdrawals with a BofA card more expensive...

Edited July 5, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

BofA (or probably any bank) prefers you do not use the sad face emotion when referring to their fees; they prefer the happy face emotion since they are making a nice little profit from the fees.

[kurtmartens]

PS to the OP - you know if you're using a Bank of America debit card in Thailand, you're paying a lot of ATM/foreign currency fees to BofA for doing so... even though AEON isn't charging you any fee??? And unfortunately, BofA is one of those U.S. banks that charges a flat fee amount for foreign ATM withdrawals... I believe $5 per plus 1% of the amount withdrawn. So that makes doing dual ATM withdrawals with a BofA card more expensive...

Depending on the type of BofA account, they refund the fees.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I know BofA does for some accounts, and as far as I recall, only for some of the very high end accounts they offer.

I've been a BofA customer for a couple decades, and had a variety of accounts with them -- various of their regular consumer accounts. And I've never had one with them that DID NOT charge a variety of FCFs...

And in all that time, I've never received any FCF refund from BofA. Although they certainly charged me a lot of fees back in my Thailand tourist days when I made the mistake of trying to use my BofA debit card here in Thailand.

BofA is among the worst banks when it comes to a variety of fees. If they have some accounts that don't charge them, they're certainly the exception to the BofA rule.

[kurtmartens]

I know BofA does for some accounts, and as far as I recall, only for some of the very high end accounts they offer.

I've been a BofA customer for a couple decades, and had a variety of accounts with them -- various of their regular consumer accounts. And I've never had one with them that DID NOT charge a variety of FCFs...

And in all that time, I've never received any FCF refund from BofA. Although they certainly charged me a lot of fees back in my Thailand tourist days when I made the mistake of trying to use my BofA debit card here in Thailand.

BofA is among the worst banks when it comes to a variety of fees. If they have some accounts that don't charge them, they're certainly the exception to the BofA rule.

I agree that BofA isn't the best bank, but they do refund the fees for me when I call and ask. They are also very good about disputes with crediting back the disputed amount until the investigation is complete; as I said I have yet to have them complete an investigation not in my favor.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Maybe you can be more specific then... as to what exact BofA account or accounts, based on your personal experience, are they willing to refund their own $5 plus 1% foreign ATM fees for..if the account holder goes to the trouble of calling and asking them nicely?

And do you mean calling on a one-by-one basis... or them refunding fees in bulk for all transactions made over a period of weeks, for example?

[kurtmartens]

Maybe you can be more specific then... as to what exact BofA account or accounts, based on your personal experience, are they willing to refund their own $5 plus 1% foreign ATM fees for..if the account holder goes to the trouble of calling and asking them nicely?

And do you mean calling on a one-by-one basis... or them refunding fees in bulk for all transactions made over a period of weeks, for example?

Will PM you.

[Chivas]

Its beyond me why people use this ATM.

No intention of rehashing the experiment I did twice in locked down weekend rates but zero advantage of using this zero fee atm.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Suffice to say, I think I was correct in my earlier comment that BofA will sometimes rebate foreign exchange fees, upon request, for some of their higher-end type accounts.

But it's not something I've ever heard of them doing for their regular consumer savings and checking accounts. The average account holder is still going to get stuck with BofA's $5 flat fee plus 1% surcharge per ATM withdrawal on foreign use of their debit card.

...Unless you're in one of those other countries outside the U.S. where BofA has partner banking relationships and no ATM fees are charged. But none of those BofA partner relationships exist at present with any Thai banks, so that perk is SOL here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Its beyond me why people use this ATM.

No intention of rehashing the experiment I did twice in locked down weekend rates but zero advantage of using this zero fee atm.

If you're referring to AEON ATMs, perhaps the answer, in my case, is that I've saved literally many hundreds of dollars over a period of years by using AEON ATMs and not paying the 150 to 180 baht ATM fees charged by the Thai banks against foreign bank cards...

If, for example, you were to assume an average of one ATM withdrawal per week over the course of a year...and the current VISA card fee of 150 baht or about $5 U.S., that works out to an added cost (or savings with AEON) of about $250 per year.

Not to mention avoiding the fees associated with international wire transfers, the Thai banks taking their .25% cut of incoming proceeds, and wire transfers generally getting a poorer exchange rate than no-fee ATM withdrawals.

[Pib]

Its beyond me why people use this ATM.

No intention of rehashing the experiment I did twice in locked down weekend rates but zero advantage of using this zero fee atm.

You talking your previous thread on AEON ATMs?

[Paul888]

I am always a little nervous on the odd occasion that I need to use a foreign bank card at an atm.

I know it doesn't feel like you were lucky OP, but imagine how more unlucky you would have been if the machine had have eaten your card. That happened to me once and my bank immediately cancelled the card when I told them even though I was confident I would be able to get it back when the bank opened next morning as I had an account there.

[KED]

Luckily, I have never had this problem with ATM's - I do wonder if you were using a Thai debit card from Bangkokg Bank, Kasikorn, or another Thai card, if they would be as proactive in crediting your account for funds not received.