# When did ATM machines first become widespread? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672 "2015-02-14T21:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/21 "2015-02-15T14:02:39Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > I think these automated ATMs are great! I have a personal PIN I use with my card! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/22 "2015-02-15T15:36:33Z")
The first ATMs I recall were in the mid-1970s in Cambridge MA. Cambridge Bank and Trust had ā€œCool Cashā€ machines (nobody called them ATMs yet). AFAIK, they only had three machines in Kendall Square and two at Fresh Pond. They were popular on Saturday mornings, when the bank wasnā€™t open,. and lines would develop there, so that the machines usually ran out of cash before the day was out. It only dispensed cash in two amounts, like $20 and $40. I donā€™t rtecall any other ATMs at that time, even in Boston itself. The next time I recall seeing ATMs was when I moved to Salt Lake City about ten years later. One of the banks had ATMs, but they only had three of them, and only one was in downtown SLC. The others were miles away, and nobody else had ATMs there at the time. But when I returned to Boston a few years later, in the late 1980s, ATMs were ubiquitous, and several large banks had them all over Boston and the surrounding towns. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/23 "2015-02-15T17:33:24Z")
I was part of the team that rolled out the ATM network in California for Bank of America. This was around 1982-4, and BofA (then limited to one-state operations like all banks) was a little behind the other majors in providing ATMs. So Iā€™d peg the first wave of reasonably widespread and common ATM service in California at 1980-82, complete (pretty much every bank and a few standalone sites) by 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/24 "2015-02-15T17:51:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I have a personal PIN I use with my card! šŸ˜ƒ Letā€™s be precise here - itā€™s a personal PIN _number_. (I once knew a woman who consistently referred to it this way. She once - just once, but I treasure it - made reference to her ā€œpersonal PIN ID numberā€.) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/25 "2015-02-15T18:11:57Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > Letā€™s be precise here - itā€™s a personal PIN _number_. > > (I once knew a woman who consistently referred to it this way. She once - just once, but I treasure it - made reference to her ā€œpersonal PIN ID numberā€.) Some acronyms just leave comprehension hanging. ā€œEnter your PINā€ is absolutely correct, in the sense that it reads out as a complete instructionā€¦ but thereā€™s something hard-bitten about it that ā€œEnter your PIN numberā€ smooths out. Ditto for ā€œSubmit applications in PDFā€ - itā€™s redundant to make it ā€œā€¦PDF format,ā€ but it adds clarity. (Itā€™s nearly always ā€œSubmit forms in DOC format,ā€ for example.) No one claims that either English or techspeak is logical. Sometimes itā€™s better if itā€™s illogicallized a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/26 "2015-02-15T20:47:22Z")
This thread made me start wondering why my mother has always referred to ATMs as Teller24ā€™s - even now, thatā€™s the language sheā€™ll use. Some googling led me [here](http://www.chattanoogan.com/2006/1/8/78329/The-Baby-Boomer-s-Guide-to-Chattanooga.aspx), where I learned: > [@](#): > > The date of the first Automated Teller Machines in Chattanooga surprised me in terms of how long ago it was. The February 20, 1972 Chattanooga Times reported that American National Bank (predecessor of Suntrust locally) planned to install Docuteller automatic banking machines. The bank marketed them as ā€œTeller24ā€ devices. American National issued special Mastercards which allowed customers to access their bank account twenty-four/seven with a personal identification number, now simply called a PIN. > > A company spokesman said, ā€œAmerican National is extremely proud to be the first bank to offer the service, not only in Chattanooga, but in the state.ā€ So they were known as Teller24s in Chattanooga before I was born, more than 40 years now. If my motherā€™s been calling them that this long, Iā€™m not likely to get her to change. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/27 "2015-02-15T22:19:11Z")
I started using bank ATMs when I moved to Maryland in 1979 (single network); my experience was very much like **LSLGuy** ā€™s #2 post. By mid-80s I had my first multinetwork-enabled ATM cards (MAC/Cirrus). Not until the 90s did I begin to be able to make purchases with ATM-debit and not until the 00ā€™s with Visa/MC-branded debit cards. Interestingly, since around 2010 the prevalence of direct deposit for just about any significant payment made it pretty rare to make ATM deposits, and that has rendered me a bit baffled as to how to perform a deposit on newfangled-technology ATMs with a deposit slot, since they no longer seem to provide envelopes or slips (used to be, fillout the envelope, put in your check or cash, add one of your slips AND/OR the machine would spit out a slip to put in the envelope, then seal the envelope, then feed it in). My brain just seems to resist that you can now simply shove a naked check straight into the intake slotā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/28 "2015-02-15T22:40:12Z")
It depends on what you mean by ā€˜widespreadā€™. I graduated high school in a very small Louisiana town in 1991 and never used one before that. I think I saw a few in the closest big cities like Dallas, TX but I didnā€™t personally know anyone that had an ATM card. We had small town bank tellers and work to cash checks for us so the demand wasnā€™t there for most people. I got my first ATM card in New Orleans in 1991 and have used them ever since. However, I went back to my hometown for the first time in a very long time in 2005. I asked someone where the nearest ATM was. They had no idea what I was talking about until I described it and they claimed they had seen one somewhere but couldnā€™t remember where. Repeat that for several more people. ATMā€™s were still a foreign concept there. Finally, a woman, an actual bank teller, told me that her bank didnā€™t have one installed yet but she heard a new bank a few miles away had just installed one a few months before. Nobody used it of course but it was there. I drove there and it was indeed just sitting in the lobby as pristine as the day it was installed. A few people watched me as I put my card in and got money out of this new-fangled device. It was a definite Back to the Future moment. I told my then stepmother that story and expected a chuckle because she lived in a much bigger town and is wealthy and well-educated. Nope, she had never used an ATM by 2005 either. My project for the day was for use to go to lunch and then the bank to get her an ATM card and teach her how to use one. Several lessons later, she a thrilled owner of a brand new card that could get her money almost anywhere (even outside of banking hours!). She was absolutely thrilled and very proud because none of her friends had such a thing. Again, this is 10 years ago, not 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/29 "2015-02-17T21:36:56Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > Still the case with ATMs in Ireland. Whenever I express my frustration about this, Irish people get this really confused look on their face, like they canā€™t even fathom the idea of depositing at an ATM. Still today I can only make a deposit at one of my bankā€™s branded ATMs, and I think this is pretty universal. I doubt itā€™s a technical limitation, bankā€™s have probably found that customers arenā€™t willing to pay a fee to give them their money (which non-home-bank ATMs would inevitably charge, just like for withdrawals!) Although now I can deposit checks by taking a photo of them with my bankā€™s smartphone app! ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/30 "2015-02-18T06:38:06Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Still today I can only make a deposit at one of my bankā€™s branded ATMs, and I think this is pretty universal. I doubt itā€™s a technical limitation, bankā€™s have probably found that customers arenā€™t willing to pay a fee to give them their money (which non-home-bank ATMs would inevitably charge, just like for withdrawals!) Well, they canā€™t use that excuse here - Irish banks donā€™t charge for withdrawing from another bankā€™s ATM. (Surprisingly, since they charge us for everything else.) Iā€™d be happy enough if I could only deposit into my own bankā€™s ATM, itā€™s just annoying that I have to go to the bank during working hours to deposit. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/31 "2015-02-18T07:55:38Z")
I think the next logical question is to ask when ATMs will disappear. Iā€™ve noticed that I virtually never need or use physical cash any more, nor do I need the ATM to deposit checks. At this point, there seems to be only 2 reasons for cash : 1. Currently, the credit card companies are screwing merchants out of about 3-5% of each transaction. The merchants do not have the option to decline the fees cuz itā€™s an oligopoly and they need the business. So, the merchants are working out a way to eliminate these fees. 2. If you want to do a transaction that doesnā€™t show up on the records (pay a hooker, buy some drugs, pay someone to work for you unofficially) you need cash. Itā€™s also the only practical way to steal money as far as I know : if someone fraudulently transfers money from one account to another, sooner or later the missing funds will be discovered, and then the transaction can be reversed. I suppose the government would very much like cash to disappear for these reasons. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/32 "2015-02-18T10:04:00Z")
Hereā€™s picture of the multi-talented Reg Varney using the first ever ATM in Enfield (London); [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/RegVarneyATM.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/RegVarneyATM.jpg) he could drive a bus _and_ use an ATM (though not at the same time). Couldnā€™t act, mind you. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/33 "2015-02-18T14:57:21Z")
I think it was around 1988 when ATMs (or as we call them, ā€œBank Machinesā€) starting being installed in my city. You could withdraw $5 from the Royal Bank (now RBC) ones. People were scamming what was then The Toronto Dominion Bank ā€œGreen Machineā€ by depositing empty envelopes and withdrawing money. I donā€™t know why because theyā€™d always get caught. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/34 "2015-02-18T15:13:35Z")
I remember this one at Columbia Bank & Trust in Maryland, late 1970sā€“[Harvey Wallbanker](https://trademarks.justia.com/731/12/harvey-wallbanker-73112059.html). ---
**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 18, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/35 "2015-02-18T16:15:00Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Some acronyms just leave comprehension hanging. ā€œEnter your PINā€ is absolutely correct, in the sense that it reads out as a complete instructionā€¦ but thereā€™s something hard-bitten about it that ā€œEnter your PIN numberā€ smooths out. > > Ditto for ā€œSubmit applications in PDFā€ - itā€™s redundant to make it ā€œā€¦PDF format,ā€ but it adds clarity. (Itā€™s nearly always ā€œSubmit forms in DOC format,ā€ for example.) > > No one claims that either English or techspeak is logical. Sometimes itā€™s better if itā€™s illogicallized a bit. To me, itā€™s perfectly logical, and that people get annoyed at expressions like ā€œPIN numberā€ annoys me. When you say something like ā€œATM machineā€ or ā€œPIN number,ā€ your brain doesnā€™t parse the acronym out into its constituent parts. It treats it as its own syntactic unitā€“it doesnā€™t matter what it literally stands for. Adding ā€œmachineā€ is for clarity. Same with ā€œnumber,ā€ especially since the word ā€œpinā€ has other meanings in English. Thereā€™s nothing wrong with redundancy in language, especially within an acronym or initialism. And how many people even know the ā€œfā€ in PDF stands for format? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/36 "2015-02-18T18:13:55Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I was part of the team that rolled out the ATM network in California for Bank of America. This was around 1982-4, and BofA (then limited to one-state operations like all banks) was a little behind the other majors in providing ATMs. So Iā€™d peg the first wave of reasonably widespread and common ATM service in California at 1980-82, complete (pretty much every bank and a few standalone sites) by 1985. Jives with my experience. I was a B of A customer in California, and got my first ATM card in 1981. ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/37 "2015-02-18T18:17:17Z")
ATMs were rather common when I started college in 1982. If you could find a branch of **YOUR** bank, they would probably have an ATM there. I distinctly remember it being a big deal when they trotted out the idea that you didnā€™t have to use their specific ATM but you could use **any** ATM which was part of some network whose logo was on the back of your card, assuming you could find one that had that same logo (but there was a $1 fee for using the network). That was 1983 by my memory. In 1985 I remember visiting another college campus and seeing 4 ATMs from various banks in front of the Student Union building. It was years later that I started seeing them in grocery stores and then gas stations. Around 1994 I remember seeing a commercial on TV where a couple of white American tourists are visiting some third-world country and they have some minor problem like a flat tire on a bicycle or something and this ten-year-old native boy runs up and says ā€œEhtiem fix everything!ā€ and leads them through the streets while the couple whisper to each other ā€œWho is this Ehtiem? Maybe heā€™s a bicycle mechanic?ā€ and finally the little boy proudly shows them their destination, an ATM mounted in a wall. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/38 "2015-02-18T20:31:25Z")
In New York City, most major banks I knew of had ATMs by 1983 or 1984. When I moved to Austin, TX in 1986, they were everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/39 "2015-02-18T20:54:43Z")
Early 80s for sure in California. They were all over the place when I was a college freshman in 1982 but still novel enough that many of my fellow freshman used one for the first time that year. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672/40 "2015-02-18T20:59:14Z")
When I went to college in 1977, ATMs were just becoming available. My bank at college had one, where I could get a pre-filled envelope of 25 or 50 dollars as others have noted. It was a big deal, in 1980, when I realized another bank would let me get any amount I wanted in 5 dollar increments if I had an account with them. ATM networks were new in the early 1980s - PLUS or Cirrus were the two big ones. I have a vague memory of having to call a number, or get a printout, in order to find out where the nearest bank was that was on the same network as mine - kind of a big deal when we went on a cross-country driving trip in 1985. By the time I moved to the DC area in the late 1980s, it was becoming a non-issue; pretty much every bank was on both of those two networks. Nowadays I donā€™t even look for PLUS or Cirrus - I can get money out anywhere. I do still try to look for credit union ATMs since many / most of them (around here at least) donā€™t charge a transaction fee if you get cash from another CUā€™s account. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-atm-machines-first-become-widespread/712672.md?page=3)