Originally Posted by entwisi (Post 656002)

I'm here Derek!!!!


There are a few things that happen in the background that people maybe don't realise. the ads etc are there to fill the screen whilst these things churn away.

firstly, teh cash machine doesn't decide if you can have the money. It takes the pin you put in in an encrypted format, the amount you request and sends a mesage up to the bank who owns the cash machine. if your account is with that bank then it responds with a yes/no response code. if it isn't your bank then the response wings it way to the Link network who then contacts your Bank and gets a response code which is sent back to teh machine. This can take a few seconds and so its a common sense and business decision to try and sell you something whilst your waiting.

Then it has to count the cash, teh machione that does this is actually a really complex thing that checks each and every note for weight, size, etc and can reject individual notes. This is all prepared in teh back and only moved and presented to you through a slot if its absolutely sure its counted everything correctly. Even when you take teh money it then has to start 'commiting' the transaction sending success codes to your bank etc so that your account can be updated. if you 'forget' to take teh money after a certain time its retracted and your account is recreditted(The machine even counts it back in so you can't 'take' 1 £20 and let it pull teh rest back!) .

These things are hugely complex and very expensive pieces of kit.

be grateful that you don't get charged for withdrawals like most of Europe!!!!!!