Changes to banking with limited access to US Dollar supplies

The problem is the machine not the bank.

Someone put a scanner on the ATM you are using and your account is compromised.

Contact your bank immediately and cancel your card and request a refund.

You might also alert the bank whose machine you used that they have an issue.

Until matters work out and you receive your new card you might consider using Western Union. Go online to Western Union and set up an account so you can transfer funds to a WU pickup location.

Good luck and sorry this happened to you.

Susan

Great advice. The bank in question just referred me to my own institution. While I appreciate the thought on that, I have to say no. I checked the machine for false fonts and other devices. (I always do, as I worked in the industry for years.) My institution blames the Cirrus network as they have a terrible reputation for this. I suspect the machine wouldn't dispense the (larger) requested amount. I was able to withdraw funds from my local account without issue. That being said, I'm monitoring my account as well.

Never had any problems here in Quito.

I think people have too much time on their hands for rumors.  I suggest researching information from several sources before posting and causing hysteria.

I was just curious to see if anyone else has had this issue, It certainly wasn't my intention to cause any panic, Jade River. The fact does remain that we're out money and waiting for the bean crunchers to find the outage somewhere in the system. I can happily report that this hasn't happened to any of our American friends, so far and this is the first time we've had the issue since I started using bank cards way back when. So, no need to worry.

Side note: It is responsible to check ATM machines for false fronts on card readers or the dispenser etc. I've noticed some machines have put guards over card slots to try and avoid the problem of skimmers. (Something that reads your card and copies the information, you likely wouldn't even realize it was happening, as the machine would dispense the money per usual.) More rare are false fronts on the dispenser. You'll hear the machine dispensing the money, but no money actually comes out, this can be indicative of a false front. (Or the machine doesn't have sufficient cash supplies to complete your request.)

I have found the Bank of Pichanca to be most reliable and have never had any issue with the ATM-----whenever possible do use their ATM

Funny, that's where we've had the problem recently. Could just be a Canadian Credit Union thing, who knows.

I'm a newbie... can you tell me if There's plentiful Bank machines in Salinas or do I need to bring “bags of cash” (I wish!!) for my upcoming trip in March 2018?

I don't know about "plenty", but Salinas is a resort town, to there should be sufficient. I recall at least three along the strip. I'm assuming (you know what they say about that) that there will be more in places like the mall, possibly bus station and bank locations around town. (Google maps offers up 10, but I'm not sure how accurate it is.)

Hotels (some larger restaurants)  will likely take credit cards, but everything else will be cash!

Update on my travails. I've received one refund of the missing funds, after 5 months. So that's good news. I'm hoping for the second to appear in a few more months. We've sent ourselves money to our local account to avoid further issues in the future.