Handling Cash Retention When Depositing at Agricultural Bank of China ATMs

1. When withdrawing cash from a bank ATM, the limit is 5,000 yuan per transaction and 20,000 yuan per day, which I already knew. However, when depositing cash, I put in 20,000 yuan at once. The machine prompted that it could not recognize the bills. I assumed it was a temporary glitch and casually clicked a button. After the machine finished counting the money, a message popped up: Sorry, your cash has been retained. Please contact the bank. At this point, the balance in my bank account had not increased. See Figure 1.

2. The machine then printed a receipt. See Figure 2.

3. Refusing to accept this, I tried depositing 10,000 yuan instead. The deposit was successful, and my bank account balance increased by 10,000 yuan. This shows that it is best not to exceed 10,000 yuan in a single cash deposit at an ATM.

4. I called the bank’s customer service, and they told me I needed to handle it at the counter. At the counter, I filled out a Self-Service Equipment Exception Handling Form. See Figure 3.

5. About two business days later, my bank account received a transfer of 20,000 yuan. The text message read: [Agricultural Bank of China] A long-item suspense account completed a transfer of RMB 20,000.00 to your account ending in 4277 at 10:45 on February 23. See Figure 4.