cross-posted from: https://fedia.io/m/privacy/t/346211

I need to check the balance of my bank card. It’s apparently becoming quite rare for ATMs to support balance inquiries. So as I try many different ATMs to check the balance, some ATMs demand PIN entry before you even see the service offers. So I enter my PIN and then it only gives a cash withdrawal option, at which point I eject.

Couple problems here:

  • anti-fraud AI sensors can be very fragile & trigger happy. If my card is inserted into several different ATMs with & no transaction is initiated, I am of course concerned that my account will be frozen due to fraud false positive.

  • some ATMs automatically print out your balance on the receipt if you ask for a receipt. Some show it on the screen Some ATMs will only print the balance on the receipt if you specifically requested the balance in your session. Some ATMs are completely incapable of balance inquiries (at least for cards from other banks). Consumers seem to have no way of knowing what kind of ATM they are dealing with in advance, which forces us to experiment.

Questions:

  • when an ATM demands PIN in advance, does that mean the transaction will signal the bank even if the session is terminated when the menu shows no balance inquiry option? IIUC, the PIN can be verified using the cards EMV chip without using the network - but is that necessarily the case?

  • when an ATM shows the menu options before asking for a PIN, can we count on no signal being sent to the bank?

One of my accounts got frozen for fraud. I called the bank, complained, demanded answers. The bankers themselves are kept in the dark and left guessing about what happened. One banker said “you asked for more than the daily limit 2 or 3 times, which failed, then you went to a different ATM and tried again. Since you went to a different machine, that likely looked like fraud”. (of course I tried a different machine – why would a legit user keep trying the same machine?)

  • debanqued@beehaw.orgOP
    1·
    2 years ago

    You may consider giving Ally bank a try.

    My dumpster fire bank is not the US. But I would avoid Ally anyway since that bank’s website is tor-hostile and their privacy policy also scores below average on privacy. I suppose the low fees and high interest must be offset by data monetization.

    I question the merit of avoiding downloading their mobile app and instead sticking your card into lots of random unverified ATMs to try to get balance reports.

    Third party ATMs do not appear to exist in my region. All ATMs are bank-owned AFAICT.

    The app may not be great, but SSL is cryptographically sound and the bank has your social and your identity anyway.

    The app requires trusting whoever the bank outsourced the coding to. Does the bank even get to see the source code? I wouldn’t trust the bank or the profit-driven closed-source developers to not include spyware or to look after the consumer’s interests. Especially in the case of US banks. Apart from that I object to Google keeping track of where I bank (data which can ultimately be sold to debt collectors) – which is inherent in being forced to use the Play Store. I also object to buying a new phone (hardware) in order to chase the version requirements. These abuses are certain, thus a non-starter compared to the mere bad luck chance of fraud by a dodgy ATM which at least have the remedy of consumer legal protections.