Metropol

Wandering past Tesco earlier today I noticed a cash machine beeping frantically. It turned out this cash machine was saying "Do you want more time?" Curious I hit Yes, and it wanted a six digit code for an "Emergency Cash Transaction". It wanted that code confirmed and then it wanted to know how much cash I wanted. Sadly it didn't produce free money, instead saying that the emergency code I had entered was incorrect. Too bad so sad.

And that was that. Does anyone have idea what on earth this is? I did a bit of googling but can't see anything. It can't have been someone who used the machine and then left it because a card didn't emerge from the machine...

Odd... very odd. Who'd know of this "emergency cash transaction" code anyway?

now, the bf lost his card recently and his bank offered him "emergency cash".

We wondered how this would work what with it being about 9pm on a Friday night and therefore all the banks being shut for days. Maybe you have to go to the ATM, type in a magical code and it then throws money at you.

There are certain banks that have this facility now. I'm not sure how widespread it is, but I gather it works as follows:

1) Panic as your find your card is lost / stolen / down the [loo / grid / etc...].
2) Call your bank and cancel said card, also ordering a new one.
3) Procure magical code from helpful staff member.
4) Walk to cash machine and enter code (as there is no card, the machine recognises that it is an emergency transaction).
5) Re-enter said code to confirm.
6) Procure cash from machine.

I noticed this months ago on Natwest ones, when I pressed the Enter button when I leant on the keypad as I fumbled with my wallet to get the card out.
Been around for some time apparently, I thought the staff had left the machine in some sort of special mode whilst they were filling it up or something, but it turns out not so.