You know they spit the cards back out after you finish your transaction, right?
Not necessarily. The machine has a choice whether to give your card back or not. In Netherlands 4 out of ~17 ATM withdrawal attempts succeeded. A couple of the machines that rejected my perfectly valid and funded card did not have a motor, so there was no confiscation risk. A couple were Geldmaat machines, which do have the confiscation mechanism. They don’t disclose that on the machines but the website mentions it. I got lucky and Geldmaat returned my card. But the reason it gave for rejecting the card is the same reason some machines will confiscate cards. I was lucky I was able to get my card back and use an ATM by a different operator, which accepted my card. Had the ATM confiscated the card, I would not have had the chance to try other ATMs.
I would definitely go with a loyalty card. In case you get hassled about it, you have a plausible excuse: you grabbed the wrong card.
Empty giftcards and prepaid credit cards.
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