# Ridiculous ATM programming **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 2, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636 "2015-02-02T20:42:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/41 "2015-02-04T17:21:05Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > If that happened, it probably wouldn’t cost more than a few cents for a programmer to go back and fix it. But the market cap of the bank is only three cents - where are you expecting those “few cents” for reprogramming to come from? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/42 "2015-02-04T19:17:18Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Bizarre, I have no idea what the OP is talking about. On any ATM I’ve used in the past decade or so, you enter 1-0-0 if you want $100. > > Actually, what you really do, is you press the preset keys which has a single button that you push for $100, $80, $60 (Also known as “quick cash”) $40, $20 and then there’s one other button that says: “Enter amount” which allows you to enter a more specific amount in denominations of 10’s or 20’s, I can’t remember. > And as far as no improvements, that’s just crazy talk. My bank’s ATMs have a feature that allow you to make cash deposits. All you do is take the stack of cash and cram it into the hole all at once and the machine magically counts it for you. No need to stick a single bill in at a time, just take the whole stack of cash and cram it in there! Wells Fargo? That’s who I use, and it gives me the opportunity to choose the breakdown of the money I withdraw- if I say $50, it asks 1 $50 bill or 2 $20 bills and a $10 bill. It also takes s stacks of cash and checks for deposit like you mention. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/43 "2015-02-04T20:06:09Z")
Yeah, I admit it’s a first world problem. I’ve had user experience principles pounded into me after 25+ years as a system engineer, so I notice these things. My ATM that does this is located at a bank branch in Virginia. I can’t even blame the bank because that branch was inherited from a recent merger and for all I know the software was like that from the start. It does have one pre-programmed option for withdrawing $60 but that’s it. Sometimes we want a different amount. Another bit of tomfoolery is that a couple years ago we created a money market fund with the same bank, and ever since then, when we try to withdraw money from the ATM, it asks us which checking account to pull from. Only within the last month did we get a notice from the bank that they’re re-classifying the money market account as savings rather than checking. (They didn’t issue any checks with the account, so it’s anyone’s guess why they classified it as a checking account.) ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/44 "2015-02-04T21:27:00Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Wells Fargo? That’s who I use, and it gives me the opportunity to choose the breakdown of the money I withdraw- if I say $50, it asks 1 $50 bill or 2 $20 bills and a $10 bill. > > It also takes s stacks of cash and checks for deposit like you mention. Yeah my Wells Fargo ATM is pretty impressive. I can feed it a stack of checks and it reads the handwriting on each one and gives me an on-screen summary that I confirm. No more deposit slips! And it can email me a receipt. It rarely reads handwriting incorrectly and even when it does it’s usually because of bad writing like numerals touching/overlapping each other. You can type in the correct amount on the keypad, and in that case dollars and cents are required. However, IIRC, if you ask for a custom cash withdraw amount I think it does ask for dollars and cents even though it only gives out $20 bills. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/45 "2015-02-06T00:04:29Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] Yeah my Wells Fargo ATM is pretty impressive. [/QUOTE] Do any other banks wish you a happy birthday via their ATMs? First time I saw that, I was not expecting it. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/46 "2015-02-06T00:20:11Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > None of this is as bizarre as braille on drive up ATM machines. > > (redundant machine redundancy intentional :)) I was just going to post this. Makes :mad: at you. Those scare me every time I see them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/47 "2015-02-06T02:34:13Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I was just going to post this. Makes :mad: at you. Those scare me every time I see them. Several obvious reasons occur to me: 1) A blind passenger in the rear, like in a taxi, might want to use one. 2) Seems to make more sense to make one type of machine rather than separate ones for drive-up and walk-up ATMs. And possibly 3) Sometimes one uses the drive-up ATM if the walk-up ATM is down or inconvenient (although this probably is not a very good idea, I suppose, especially for a blind person, though I’ve done this quite often. But at least the first two points.) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/48 "2015-02-06T06:01:38Z")
Many years ago, I would occasionally cash a paycheck after hours at my credit union’s drive through ATM. Deposit it, withdraw the amount I needed from my new balance, and good to go. Didn’t know the whole setup was based on the honor system 'til that one night I gave them the stub and kept my check. Oops. They were MAD about that. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/49 "2015-02-11T12:21:56Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > This caught up with us once when we were travelling in the Czech Republic where we weren’t paying attention and accidentally withdrew something like $5000 instead of $50. Since it was the weekend, we had to walk around with $5000 worth of Czech Koruna until we finally found a bank that would allow us to convert it back. Something similar almost happened to me recently when I visited Japan after a week in South Korea. I don’t know whether it was because I was tired, or because I’d grown used to 1,000 South Korean won being about a dollar. but I asked the Japanese ATM for 500,000 yen. For a while I couldn’t understand why the transaction was refused, but then realised that $5,000 was way over my daily limit: I could get 50,000 yen instead. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/50 "2015-02-11T16:38:28Z")
I’m gonna say something good about ATMs, at least the ones that PNC bank has. 1. They make you insert _- and then remove -_ your ATM card before you can begin your transaction. They put this improvement in about 2 years ago. It makes it impossible for you to leave your ATM card in the machine, and next to impossible to leave it behind at all. I’m a big fan of this bit of idiot-proofing, because I’m the sort of guy who would be that sort of idiot. 1. Their ATMs also let you define your own standard cash withdrawal. So if you normally take out $120 in cash, it will let you set a button on the ATM for withdrawing that amount. And in subsequent visits where you want $120, after inserting and withdrawing your card and punching in your 4-digit code, you hit the $120 button, it spits out the money, and you’re done. 2. I think this one’s more widespread, but when depositing checks, just being able to feed the check into the machine, and getting a transaction slip with a photo of the check you deposited, is a significant improvement. It used to be next to impossible to tell whether you had deposited a particular check or not. Now you’ve got a picture that says you did. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/51 "2015-02-11T16:59:41Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Do any other banks wish you a happy birthday via their ATMs? First time I saw that, I was not expecting it. So they looked on Facebook and saw it was your birthday? Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/52 "2015-02-11T18:03:11Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > 1. I think this one’s more widespread, but when depositing checks, just being able to feed the check into the machine, and getting a transaction slip with a photo of the check you deposited, is a significant improvement. It used to be next to impossible to tell whether you had deposited a particular check or not. Now you’ve got a picture that says you did. One of my favorite things about smartphones is that I can now just take a picture of a check with my bank’s app, and it’s deposited. Brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/53 "2015-02-11T18:17:08Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Do any other banks wish you a happy birthday via their ATMs? First time I saw that, I was not expecting it. My car says goodbye to me when I turn off the ignition. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/54 "2015-02-11T18:26:22Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > Horrible in a first world problems sort of way. Only assholes use that term. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/55 "2015-02-11T18:33:15Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > None of this is as bizarre as braille on drive up ATM machines. > > (redundant machine redundancy intentional :)) Not entirely redundant. One of the reasons they picked ATM as it was also called a “Any Time Money Machine” . After all, for decades it wasn’t really a “teller” since all it could do was dispense cash. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/56 "2015-02-13T13:02:16Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > My car says goodbye to me when I turn off the ignition. Your car was made by AOL? > [@Askance](#): > > The OP clearly says she has to type in cents to withdraw dollars: I’d venture to say that, if she tried to withdraw an amount that didn’t end with zero cents, it wouldn’t go through. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/57 "2015-02-13T13:51:32Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Your car was made by AOL?.. Nah, if it was from AOL or Yahoo, it would be spamming me. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/58 "2015-02-13T17:00:21Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > One of my favorite things about smartphones is that I can now just take a picture of a check with my bank’s app, and it’s deposited. Brilliant. Yeah, I was thinking of mentioning that, but since this thread’s about ATMs, I thought I’d stick to that. Besides, I get money out of the machines often enough that it’s simpler just to stick the checks in the machine when I’m pulling cash out, than figure out how to do a deposit from my desktop or tablet. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/59 "2015-02-14T05:16:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > My car says goodbye to me when I turn off the ignition. So did my ex. Your point is…? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636/60 "2015-02-14T05:47:39Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > Also, the braille on the drive up ATM keypads? That kind of stupid you can’t even blame on banks. It is required by the US Govt. So the blind person sitting in the back seat behind the driver can use it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ridiculous-atm-programming/711636.md?page=4)