Vote with Your Bank Account!
May 06 '00
I hate to write this but I side with the banking industry on this subject. Not a popular belief, I know, but let me explain!
Most ATMs give you unrestricted access to your account any time you need to. All of them let you withdraw cash (provided you have the funds, that is), some enable you to view your account balance, some to deposit funds and some let you transfer money between your accounts. The best ones I know are located in Illinois and do all of the above. 24 hours, 7 days a week!
No staff required; it’s just you and a machine! The bank has got to save money by letting you use an ATM! So, they should share the wealth - or the cost savings for that matter – and give you a freebie, right?
But – without getting into numbers - let’s consider what an ATM involves (lots of hypothesis’s on my part…):
• Convenient location: Either a bank has to convert part of their branch to hold an ATM or it will have to rent space in a desirable location like a grocery store or shopping mall. I am not sure on how rent for ATM space is calculated, but I would venture to guess that it is a combination of a flat fee plus some revenues based on usage. Just like your candy/snack machine at work!
• Equipment: I have not worked in the consumer oriented banking world for over a decade now, so I cannot quote you numbers, but needless to say, they are not cheap. (Well, Meg, that was precise!)
• Maintenance: It’s a machine. Therefore it breaks! Or gets worn out and needs replacement parts. Considering what a plumber charges to just look at your leaky faucet, I hope you can envision the bill a bank gets for a visit from the “ATM repair man”…
• Staff: But it’s a machine?!? Well, since they don’t print money within these little gadgets, someone has to put the money in them on a regular basis lest you get the pesky little message “Sorry, this ATM is out of order!”. Someone also has to take the deposit and payment slips out for processing, and someone has to replace the paper roll that your receipts come from… Oh, and lets not forget about toner, and the deposit envelopes, which by the way are never present when I need them!
• Security Service: If the ATM is not located within the branch itself, maintaining an adequate amount of cash in the machine will probably involve the services of an armored car (please, is there a better word for this service??).
• ATM Network Fees: The more networks are enabled on an ATM the more profit potential the machine has, but in return the bank will have to pony up for being part of the miscellaneous networks.
These machines provide a service to us, the bank customer. We don’t have to conform to regular branch hours, don’t need to take a detour to our bank at rush hour and in a lot of cases don’t even have to get out of the car to get cash. This all comes at a cost. We should bear that cost.
If I order books from an online book retailer, I expect to pay for shipping and handling. If I have groceries brought to my doorstep, because I hate shopping with four little kids, I pay a delivery charge! These charges are annoying, but my life is easier due to the service provided. So, I pay for them. If I don’t like it or think the fees are excessive, I go to my local book or grocery store, or better yet I find an online competitor, who will gladly ship my books for free or wave the delivery charges for any grocery order over X dollars!
You don’t like your bank’s ATM fees? Well, take your business somewhere else! Remember in the early ‘90s, First Chicago attempted to charge customers $3 for using a teller to conduct business that could be handled via ATM? Customers defected in droves and complained in numbers unheard of before. So the charge was dropped! Came back later (and stuck), but at least the bank was forced to acknowledge their customer’s displeasure.
Please, don’t misunderstand! I don’t like ATM charges myself and berate my husband constantly for withdrawing cash from machines outside our network! I do my utmost to avoid charges by only using our bank’s ATMs, their drive-thru tellers or the cash back option when paying via debit card. But I also appreciate – if not love - the fact that I can access my bank account, while being 2000 miles away from my nearest bank branch. Last year I even paid for groceries with my debit card in Australia without a problem!
So, tell me again, why my bank should not charge me?
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Epinions.com ID:
Bankrott
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Member: Megan
Location: Cedarburg, WI
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 50 members
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