Whereas I have seen in Europe they can come in in $5 increments? Obivisouly there is a reason for this and I expect because its cheaper to be the answer. I wonder because the Euro comes in many shapes and sizes whereas US currency is all one shape and size, which would probably be easier to engineer a machine to spit out same sized bills.
I’ve used machines in the past that gave out $5’s or $20’s, the ones at my credit union currently give out $20’s or $50’s.
It depends on where you are. The ATM in the bar across the street gives out only $5.00 bills (for use in the poker machines). The ATM at the bank on the corner gives out only $20.00 bills.
Most only give out $20 bills because it’s cheaper and easier to make and maintain a machine that only deals with one currency denomination. Banks would rather do something cheaper and make a bigger hassle to the customers than the other way around, though there are a few exceptions (Merchants, a local VT bank, spits out $10 bills at most, if not all, of its ATMs.)
My bank’s ATMs give $20s and $5s. So, like Invisible Wombat says, it depends on where you are.
My Credit Union gives out increments of $10. Almost all other ATM’s in the area are $20’s. I prefer the $10 ATM.
I’ve never seen $5s, but I’ve been to a Citibank that spit out both $10 and $20.
A friend went to a strip club where they spit out only $50s. Yeowch!
The Bank of America one in Dash-In allows you to take out ten bucks at a time.
bouv hit it. It’s cheaper and easier…for the bank. That said, I do remember a friend taking me to a $1.00 bill ATM near a college campus. Those that don’t deal in $20s and $50s are the exceptions, though (ETA: at least here in NYC).
IIRC, early ATMs used to give out $5s, $10s, and $20s; I remember that you could enter amounts in $5 increments. Before dispensing your money the ATM would tell you what bills it was going to give you, and you could request smaller bills.
I’ve heard that in Las Vegas there are ATMs that dispense $100 bills, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Former banking equipment tech here: ATMs in the US dispense pieces of paper. The person setting up the machine can code the cash cans for whatever denomination(s) they desire, and the display software responds to the cans it recognizes are loaded into the dispenser. Two and three can machines were most prevalent, so you could do a combination of $20 and $10, $20 and $5, and so forth.
The simple answer to the question lies in weekend use, particularly holiday weekends when the machine sits for 3 days without being serviced. Filling the machine to maximum dollar capacity reduces the likelihood of it running out of cash. For example, let’s say a two can machine has a capacity of 10K bills, 5K in each. If you load with all $20, the machine has $200,000 to dispense. OTOH, if you split that between $20 and $5, capacity drops to $125,000.
Dear danceswithcats, Could you fill the machine with pieces of paper saying “[nelson]Ha ha![/nelson]”, as long as they were the right dimension?
It seems all the machines around here only dispense 20s now, but several years back you could get 10s and 20s. I figure it’s simply easier to deal with only one type of bill, plus what danceswithcats says.
When I first used a bank with ATMs in Boston , in the mid-1970s, they had envelopes of cash made up in two possible denominations. Those were your only choices.
People started hitting the machines on Friday Night. By mid-Saturday they’d be out of money altogether. It was clearly An Idea Whose Time Had Come, but whose techniology couldn’t keep up with the demand.
I don’t think I used another ATM after that for another ten years. At that time, the bank had only three machines – one in downtown Salt Laske, and two others over ten miles away. “Convenient” it wasn’t, but at least I could get money if I needed it after hours.
Absolutely! When I attended ATM service training at the home office, we had piles of “play money” which was made to the exact width and thickness as genuine scrip.
This is also why it’s VERY important for persons filling the cash cans to not mix them up. If you put $20 bills in the $5 can, the machine treats them as pieces of paper, and the higher ups will not be amused.
The ATMs inside Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH allow for $2.00 as the smallest increment of cash withdrawal. This amount just so happens to be the exact cost of exiting the garage. But I kind of like the idea of getting such a small increment, would be handy if you want something from a vending mahine, etc.
Straight Dope Rule #56 and #56A.
Any thread titled “how come … only” or “how come … no” will be answered with plenty of contrary examples.
Yow! Does a typical machine really have that much money in it when full?
One side effect I’ve noticed recently is the scarcity of $10-bills. Whenever I break a twenty, I usually two fives instead of a ten. This has been explained as a result of the ubiquity of ATM machines, but they were ubiquitous for a long time before I noticed this phenomenon.
In Germany if you take out €100 from an ATM you’ll usually get €50, 2 €20s and a €10 but here you’ll nearly always get 2 €50s and often ATMs will instruct you to take out money in increments of €50. It’s a pain if you’re running low on funds.
Speaking for my wife, who worked at Bank of America in California for several years, the answer is yes. I don’t have any personal knowledge to elaborate beyond that, but I think I asked her that question with the same astonishment you just expressed.