ATM Literacy

Is there such a thing as ATM literacy? Read on.

I was next in line at an ATM machine late this afternoon. The lady at the machine seemed to be confused because her transaction was cancelled. I first thought the machine ate her card but a few seconds later it was ejected. She approached the guard and gestured at the machine. It turned out that she was taking long in entering data that the machine automatically cancelled her transaction. The guard approached her and stood next to her, told her to repeat the process and guided her through each step. She chose to transact in Taglish and it was the guard who pressed the buttons for her. she obviously didn't know what was happening. At the part where she had to enter an amount, the guard told her how much to withdraw then left her to go back to his post. I happened to glance over her shoulder and saw that her acount had insufficient funds.

She again looked at the guard but I told her in Filipino that she did not have enough money to withdraw the amount she entered. So she placed her ATM card back into the machine, keyed in her PIN and when I saw that she was trying to make sense of the menu, I took the liberty of pushing the buttons for her. Since I saw how much she had in her account, I just told her to withdraw 500 pesos. Once she was able to claim her cash, she thanked me and apparently embarassed, she said she didn't know how to use that particular machine.

When she left, I could only shake my head at what transpired nd felt sorry for the lady. I really wanted to ask her how she ended up with an ATM card without knowing how to use it. I guess I'll never know.