Interesting article, thanks. That sounds right for Diebold and Fujitsu-those folks were ahead of the rest of us from the get-go, which is why the companies I mentioned previously aren’t in the game any more. Thickness, width, and sum verification (# of bills-not $ sum) were the values checked prior to the stacker/delivery module (the part that imitates Woody Woodpecker on Interbold ATMs) completing the dispense.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Quito, Ecuador visiting my daughter (where the currency is US dollars and they use US paper money). She requested $100 from an ATM and $1 bills were included in the bills the machine dispensed.
I remember that, but a bit differently. I thought it was really check cashing; of course they’d hold the amount against your account. Also, I’m pretty sure they had pennies also.
My wife didn’t believe me, so I waited for our next trip to NYC and showed her. In fact I think I withdrew $.01. Sadly, this was at the WTC branch. Never saw that feature again.
Heh, I only get cash out in multiples of $100 in Vegas so I know that every one I’ve used dispenses $100 bills. I was thinking that they only dispense $100 bills, but now that I think about it, they probably dispense $20 bills also. I recently withdrew $500 from the BofA machine at Albertson’s. The bills were a bit ragged and actually jammed the slot. I managed to pry them out of the slot, but I wish they dispensed $100 bills.
The local ATM here dispenses $10 or $20 bills. Local in this case means Baku, Azerbaijan. It will also spit out either Euros (not sure of the denomination) or the local currency (Manats) in 10s or 50s.
Locally most ATMs dispense only $20. However, some machines (specifically those at Wegmans) dispense $5 and $20. Since they’re a 24 hour store, the money supply and personnel costs that danceswithcats mentioned don’t really apply, though.
A few of the machines on my campus distribute everything in $1 increments. It is pretty useful when I just want a few bucks to buy some snacks at the campus store to not have to take out a $20. Reading the tech explanations clarifies why the machine rarely lets you pull ones on the weekend and instead increases to dispense 5’s or 10’s.
As an American who has lived abroad for some years, personally my guess would be that due to the US’s much lower population density, ATMs will be spread out less densely as well. This means you need to travel farther to get to one, and thereby you’ll rarely be interested in withdrawing smaller amounts of cash. So you won’t see many that allow for $5 or $10 withdrawals since its not worthwhile in comparison with the demand. But, at the same time probably most people still won’t be withdrawing several hundred dollars at a time, nor do they want larger denomination bills since these are a hastle for stores to split, so a pack of $20s makes sense.
ETA: For the cite-minded, the USA has an average population density of 31 people per km[sup]2[/sup], while as the EU has 112 per. I lived in Tokyo and there was probably at least one ATM per three square blocks. Japan has a population density of 339 people per km[sup]2[/sup].
Its a flipping pain in the arse. I don’t even get to walk past the only machine in the area that I knew would give you a fiver on the way home any more. Although I did go to it to get my rent money ready for the landlord once, only to have it spit out £150 in fivers :o
I’ve never come across an ATM in Australia that dispensed anything except $20 and $50 notes.
I’m told that some of the smaller Bank and Building Society ATMs used to dispense $10 notes, but I never encountered one.
The theory is, I believe, that most businesses have EFTPOS now anyway, and so if you’re that desperate for $10 you could buy a stick of gum or some Tic-Tacs from somewhere and get cash out as well- otherwise, well, $20 doesn’t last that long anyway these days, so that’s the smallest denomination it’s worth putting in an ATM.
I’m assuming you mean the equivalent of $5 in local currency? Either way, where have you seen this? Here in Sweden, it’s increments of 100 SEK (which is approximately $15) and in the Euro-using countries I’ve visited all ATMs I used gave out increments of 20 euros (approximately $28).
Look closely at that machine next time you’re in the store. I very much doubt that Wegman’s owns or services the unit. It is likely the property of a local banking chain, and is serviced at their behest by personnel from a local armored company. Wegman’s may have worked a deal with the hosting bank, as did Wawa convenience stores in eastern PA did with PNC Bank, that PNC got the right to site an ATM in all Wawa outlets, but couldn’t charge an access fee.
They may well have the deal with the armored company you’re suggesting - but I really believe that the ATMs are not associated with any bank, nor part of any particular bank’s network. I know that the disclaimer for the ATM is that Wegmans is the one which collects the fee, so I’m still inclined to believe that they own the ATMs, not just give/lease space to them to a bank. I just did my week’s shopping, though, so it’ll be a while before I head back.
The term you’re looking for here is “ISO”.
http://www.atmmarketplace.com/research.php?rc_id=13
Many ATMs ARE bank-owned.
Quite a few ATMs, especially in retail locations, are not bank-owned.
All things considered, I’ll take all $20s over $20s and $50s. I usually take $100+ out at a time, to be spent over a week or two, and I hate machines that give me 2 $50s.
Boy, you have been out of the country for a while. ATM’s are a dime a dozen. Every podunk retailer has one, or at least one on every block in the commercial district. It’s just a matter of whether or not you want to suck down the ATM fees. Cheap bastard that I am, I just withdraw a wad of cash to minimize the percentage hit due to bank fees. Also the reason I bank at BofA is that there is a BofA ATM in damn near every cow town here.
Downtown, certainly. But Japan is downtown from ocean to ocean. And one Bank of America to a town isn’t impressive in terms of geographical proximity.
This is just what I came in here to say. The last time I was in Las Vegas, which was over 10 years ago, the ATM at the casino I was in only gave out Ben Franklins.
My ATM’s in town, depending on which one I hit up, will give me 5, 10, 20 and 50’s.
Just as an example, I live in a town with a population of 2,300. We have three banks, a separate bank drive-through facility, and a credit union. Each bank/CU has an ATM. There are two more on the street downtown (our “downtown” is only 6 blocks long), and I know of at least four bars with ATMs in them. That’s ten of them, and there are almost certainly more in the bars I don’t frequent. I think both gas stations have ATMs, but I’m not sure (I never go inside). I seem to recall someone mentioning ATMs in one or more of the hotel lobbies. All in all, I’d be surprised if there were less than 15, which is certainly a pretty high density.
Even the town I just moved from (population 209) had three ATMs.
Sage Rat, you don’t have a very good mental picture of ATM distribution in the U.S.