I second the question about what fees? I get hit by no fees when I go to my own bank’s ATM, and they are everywhere, thankfully. I do get hit by fees at other banks’ ATMs.
And using your ATM card in the grocery line is fine, and I do it all the time, but getting cashback sometimes has a fee. It depends on how much you buy and how much cashback you want. (Like, if you buy $100 worth you can get, say, $20 of cashback without a fee. Numbers totally made up.)
I use my bank’s ATMs with great regularity. They’re free for account holders. Am I financially illiterate?
On the rare occasion when I have to go to a different ATM, the one I use charges a buck fiddy. I regularly withdraw $200. That’s less than a 2% premium for the convenience. I think comparing that to usurious lending rates is rather absurd.
A $3 fee to get $20 cash is a 15% surcharge. A guy I was with paid a $5 surcharge in a Las Vegas casino once. I couldn’t believe it.
Where I live, all of the grocery stores will give you cash back for free with any transaction. They also have ATM’s that will charge you $2 or $3 for exactly the same service.
What a strange world you live in. All the ATMs in my neighborhood are free. How do I know? Because they all have huge signs on them that say “FREE ATM!”.
Or maybe it’s just a political message and John Atm has been unjustly jailed?
Well, it was nice of you to give the exact figure you were basing that 15%-20% on in your first post. You worded your post as if everything you said was true for everyone everywhere everytime and then saying “People who use ATM’s with any sort of regularity are more financially illiterate than the guy in the OP.” based on that.
Even expressing the surchange as a percentage, like it friedo said, the fee goes down to 2% when you take out $200, not the usurious rates you insinuated were common. Others have also pointed out the prevalence of grocery stores who charge for cashback.
If you use an ATM from your own bank, they are (or should) be free. But if you use it from another bank, I’ve seen rates anywhere from $1-$3 per transaction. Now, while you can agree to accept those fees, what you don’t agree to (or, technically, what you’ve forgotten you’ve already agreed to) is that your own bank will ALSO charge you a fee on their end for the transaction, basically doubling your fee to use the ATM.
It’s a subtlety missed by most people who use ATMS every week and I can’t imagine that the Senators who are confused by those strange boxes with Braille on them have even thought to ask a question regarding this issue.
Who is John Atm?
It’s actually less than 1% out of $200. :smack:
I guess I am a financial bozo, after all.
The inventor of the ATM just died. He was 84 years old.
I’ll just email my mom who was born in 1942 and see what she thinks of this (if she’s not too busy internet banking, mind you).
I don’t use ATMs.
After all, why should I pay a fee to get my own money?
He’s John, at the moment.
Because they have their lives organised in such a way that they don’t need to use ATMs, and therefore they don’t see any reason to do so.
Well, sure. I mean, I get that. But my dad hates standing in line at the bank as much as I do. So, why on Earth would one choose not to use this fancy machine, available at any hour, likely with no line?
Literally the only time I go into the bank is when I need to cash a check (not deposit, but literally just cash). That’s it.
My dad just said that yesterday he used an ATM for the first time in 10 years, because the teller was just closing and couldn’t take him, so they told him to try the ATM. He was amazed that he could make a deposit up until 8 PM and have it clear the same day. Mind you, he still said he’ll walk into the bank, given the choice.
Is it just not trusting technology? Were ATMs 10+ years ago extra sketchy or something?
You shouldn’t. Get a bank with free ATM service. (Like, I don’t know, fucking all of them.)
Possibly, but I don’t think so. ATMs have been in common use in Australia for nearly 30 years. As I said, for many older people there’s just no need to use them, so why bother? You note that ATMs save time. That may not be a key imperative for some. And in any case, it’s often not even true. My local bank branch generally has longer queues outside at its ATMs than it has inside for the tellers. I usually take advantage of this by going into the branch to do my banking.
I remember ATMs when I was a child. They were called Teller/24s. I’m 46.
Now, I rarely use ATMs. I really have no need for cash in my daily life. The last time I used one was last winter when I was at an awards banquet and I needed cash for the bar, so I hit the ATM in the hotel lobby. It was probably the first time I’d used one in a year.
So, even though I rarely use ATMs I’m not “afraid” of the technology. I have used the ATM at the bank to make after-hours deposits, etc., for years. It’s just that, as someone else mentioned, my life is arranged totally differently that I don’t need ATMs and rarely need cash. Well, I take that back. I do get some cash at the grocery store to pay my kids for their extra-pay chores.
I see we have a replacement for “It’s a series of tubes!”
My dad is 60 and he eschews most technology, including the regular use of credit cards. But he needs cash. So he organizes his life around going to the grocery store once a week or so to do shopping and get cash from the ATM. For free.
Direct deposit was hard on the man, but once it became his only option, he liked it. Then he no longer had any reason to go to the bank, so he started to use the ATM to get cash. It is so much more convenient.
Love the article. Holograms. Ha!