So, one of the things you learn fairly quickly in India when you arrive from other seas is that, as a Brazilian pal put it to me:
Cash machines are kind of special places.
They’re almost always installed as standalone machines in their own special little rooms. Sometimes this is even it’s own purpose built little building.
They have their own air conditioning and they often have their own dedicated security guard. This poor soul is usually bored rigid, but he does get to sit about in the air conditioning (or occasionally just outside the door). Presumably he’s there to ensure that no-one does anything untoward with the machine. Or I suppose, just possibly make sure that no-one is mugged while getting money out. Though I suspect it’s really much more for the machine.
The machines themselves manage to look like something from the 1970s. Except of course I don’t think we had ATMs then, did we?
But the styling is pure retro. Even the screens are sometimes still green text affairs. Imagine!
Often you dont’ instert your card all the way in, but slide it in and pull it out sharply. This has the advantage that the machine can’t swallow your card (as it hasn’t actually got it), but it does mean that you often have to put it in a few times before it can read your chip.
The really weird thing about them – or about banks over here really – is that my standard current account. The one that my salary is paid into and I have a cheque book and credit card for… isn’t a current account at all. No, it’s a savings account.
This is normal here, but it confused the hell out of me when I first opened the account. I remember the horrible sinking feeling of not being able to log into my account – the one I’d just been paid into, the one that should have had all my cash in it… Thankfully an expat colleague was on hand to whisper – ‘try ‘savings’ account’. Phew.
At least I was in the embrace of aggressive airconditioning at that point. So my brow was unsticky. They keep those little ATM rooms really, really cold.
-:–:-
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Really interesting that they’re kept in airconditioned rooms – you don’t think about it, but it makes total sense
So true, and on a hot day it is really nice to step into something chilly that is actually working!
They keep the rooms cold so the machines don’t overheat. I can imagine in India that it is scorching hot year round, and machines aren’t supposed to be run in any temperatures over 75 degrees fahrenheit. I love air conditioning because I hate being hot, I’m sure the machine would feel the same way.
Well actually – India is hot all over the country. Many places (like Bangalore) are high altitude and have moderate temperatures all year round. Sadly (but enough of my dislike of the cool temperatures here.
A big part of why they have them in special areas – is that they’re still fairly new here. Yes they need to be run in a temperate climate – but the fact that everyone doing online banking, using computers and the like… it’s all come in over the last ten years or so, it really is a very new and modern world that’s changed very quickly here.