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Question of the Day – ATM Usage
By JLP | September 13, 2007
I just saw that Bank of America has raised its ATM fee to $3 for non-customers who use BoA’s ATMs. That seems a little high to me. I’m not a frequent ATM user because I just use my debit card rather than cash. I can’t think of any time that I paid a few to use an ATM.
Topics: Banking, Question of the Day | 31 Comments »
September 13th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
When I used BofA, I almost never used another bank’s ATM (BofA’s ATM’s are everywhere), but when I did, I’d have a mini-heart attack.
Now I use Schwab’s Investor Checking, get ATM fee-refunds, and use a rewards credit card for everything else.
But yes, 3$ is pretty friggin high.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I just saw that!
I don’t use ATMs but instead get cashback.
If I don’t need to buy anything, I buy chapstick from CVS (their brand is 99 cents) and get the cashback there. I use chapstick religiously, so it’s worth it to have a backup supply. Plus, I don’t use cash much and I normally get it while shopping.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I stopped using ATMs years ago when I noticed an eerie coincidence: every time I took money out of the ATM, my checking account balance would go down by the same amount!
September 13th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Hello!
I rarely use ATMS. I use credit cards exclusively to make all of my purchases. I believe in maximizing my money. Why spend cash when you can accrue credit card rewards?
- Raymond
September 13th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
We budget $100 spending money ($50 each) each month. I go to my bank’s ATM once a month to withdraw our cash. And that is it
September 13th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Never. Not even my own bank ’cause I can never remeber the pin number. I almost never use cash anyway – mostly cause I hardly ever buy anything that I’d use cash for.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
We use a credit union, so our “ATM strategy” is to use either other credit union ATMs or 7-11 ATMs.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I rarely use the ATM, maybe once every 4 or 5 months and I only use the one for my bank.
My general method of getting cash is to find a poker game some night, drop $50 or $60 to get into it, and go home with $100-$300 depending upon the number of people. That tends to be more frequent than the ATM, although I haven’t played cards for months at this point…
September 13th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
I rarely use ATMs, but when I do, I usually use the one for my bank. Even so, I happen to know that the foreign ATM fee for my bank is $1.50. So, yeah, $3.00 seems steep to me.
However, I think it’s completely in line with what I am seeing recently from BOA – I have a BOA credit card and they are increasing fees for everything. Increasing interest rates for everything, too. But, as an example, if I wanted to do a balance transfer, the fee used to be 1.5%, now it’s 3% (obviously, not doing that!). It makes me wonder about what’s going on in their business.
September 13th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Why you would go to another ATM instead of your bank’s ATM is beyond me, unless you had a major emergency and couldn’t go to your bank’s ATM.
The solution? Leave a couple hundred dollars at home, do your banking at a national bank with lots of ATM locations near you, and use your credit card for a majority of your purchases.
September 13th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Like others, I use an ATM fee reimbursement account(E*Trade checking). However, the real key is for each person who is presently a BofA customer to move all of their funds to another bank. If enough people boycott them, they may have second thoughts. Lots of banks make it very attractive to open new accounts.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I never use ATMs – I don’t even carry my debit card around. I use my rewards credit card for everything I can, so I use cash rarely enough that I can usually make it til the next time I have to go to the bank to replenish my supply.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
I hit ATMs regularly, as I don’t like to use plastic except as an emergency oh-frack-I’m-out-of-cash item or for on-line transactions. I have a credit union on the co-op network, so I can go nearly anywhere in the US and not worry about it.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
A friend of mine opened an account with a credit union that he liked, but the problem was they had very few ATMs (maybe 5 in the state that I know of). He also had a horrible habit of going to ATMs all the time, his theory was he would spend less if he didn’t have the cash (this was wrong because he just went to ATMs way more often). SO one night he and his dad sat down to figure out how much money he was losing in ATM fees. Over the course of a year it was almost $1000. (his bank charged 2.50 plus what ever the ATM charged)He was shocked. He immediately switched to a bank that had more ATMs.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Most credit unions allow free ATM withdrawals from each other’s ATMs. Also, most of them are in a group that allows free withdrawals from 7-11s.
I’m too lazy to bother with online banks, and since my credit union has 5% interest on savings with no lower limit, it makes a good place to “stage” my money before investing it.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I rarely use ATMs these days. I use credit card whenever possible. And I offer to pay people’s bills with my credit card and receive cash in return.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Someone above mentioned banking at CUs and using 7-11s for free withdrawals. If your CU is part of the CO-OP network there are other locations as well. See http://www.co-opnetwork.org/public/locators/ATMlocator/index.cfm
which has an ATM locater.
My daughter started college this year. She changed banks to B of A specifically because the only ATM on campus was served by B of A. I’m not happy with the (lack of) service of B of A vs my CU, but so it goes.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:30 am
thats why citibank and 7-eleven is your friend. also have to love wawa’s no charge atms
September 14th, 2007 at 7:38 am
How time changes the story line! Banks originally installed ATMs as a way to reduce the need for staffing tellers inside – the machines were cheaper than people.
NOW, BofA spins the higher fees with, ‘Well, its expensive to maintain all these machines … after all, they’re there for YOUR convenience.’
September 14th, 2007 at 8:22 am
The only time I use an ATM is to get out my cash for the following two weeks. Otherwise things go on the debit card (which I use as a ‘credit’ card to avoid being charged the annoying $0.25 fee in many places here).
September 14th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I probably go to my Bank’s ATM less than one a month. Heck folks who need to go to ATM’s that charge don’t remember back when there were no ATMs…. come to think of it I don’t think my parents have an ATM card.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I use ATMs when I need to get cash out which is probably once or twice a month. I never carry cash so I am almost always scrambling when I have to give cash tips for valet, airport luggage handlers, etc. I have tried to better prepare by having like five dollar bills in my car at all times. I use USAA for banking and they refund up to I think $15 for ATM fees monthly. I have not paid an ATM fee in forever, without getting it refunded.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I rarely use my bank’s ATM.
Maybe once a month if that. I rarely have cash though.
I’ve only used an out of network ATM if it’s been a real emergency, lets say less than once a year.
Bank of America’s fees are ridiculous.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I am like #1 and #11 above that my bank (USAA) refunds other bank’s silly ATM fees, and doesn’t charge me a fee for using them.
That answers Esmo (#10) above, why I use out-of-network ATMs. In our cases, using any network’s ATM does not cost us a cent. Really handy especially when you are traveling.
The BofA development is angering… I think I’ll avoid BofA on principle now even though those three dollars will be refunded to me.
September 14th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I use ATMs maybe once or twice a month if I have a small check to deposit. I prefer to go into the bank itself most of the time though.
September 15th, 2007 at 7:40 am
Our nanny government is again worried about their incompetent citizens that refuse to read and are ready to blame everyone else for their misfortunes. Many people complain about the trouble it is to look around and change accounts. Fine! Let BofA charge what ever they want, as long as they tell us ahead of time.
I only use my bank’s ATMs and don’t carry much cash, so none of this affects me. Otherwise, I would be looking for no-fee ATMs and using accounts that refund my fees.
September 16th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I use RBC here in Canada. I’m not sure how it works elswhere but here I get charged $1.50 from the bank the ATM belongs to and $1.50 from my bank. Yup, $3.00 is too much. Obviously I don’t use other ATMs if I can help it but sometimes it’s seems unavoidable.
September 17th, 2007 at 7:43 am
While I say I won’t pay $3 to BOA to use their ATM, I’m sure at some point I will. It’s a convenience fee. I think the most important thing to think about is how much you’re taking out in comparison to the fee your spending. If you’re taking out $50 and get charged $3 for it, you just paid a 6% convenience fee to BOA. If your bank also charges you a fee like my bank does, tack that on. My bank charges $1.50 to use another banks ATM. That would be a total of $4.50 I’ll get charged for the convenience of using BOA’s ATM for $50. That’s a 9% charge for the convenience $50.
As a customer of another bank, BOA owes me nothing. There are banks that will reimburse you for the ATM fees that other banks charge you. I’m a USAA member. It’s an financial institution for family members of military veterans. They will reimburse you for Bank ATM fees. I think Washington Mutual will do the same. If the fees really bother you, try to find a better solution. There was a time when we didn’t have ATMs at all and people survived.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Husband uses ATMS much more than I b/c of business travel out of pocket stuff. I’m a firm believer in my Citibank Upromise for everything…yes, even $3 at McDonald’s. However, after 17 years, I can gleefully state he is trained to only use our Harris network. He’ll incur my wrath if he doesn’t comply
Here’s a hint if you’re out of town and your bank doesn’t have branches there: go to the Post Office. You can use your debit card and get cash back. Ditto for most grocery stores.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Cash only for coins when I need laundry and other misc tasks. But when I do, I go out of my way to find a Wellsfargo somewhere.
I think I may consider opening an account with that bank in Walmart (what ever their name is).
September 20th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I use the ATM about 2 or three times a month – almost always from my own bank (Wells Fargo)- and won’t use a non-network ATM except in a crunch. My peeve is not when the ATM owner charges a fee, after all they have to buy the machine, load it with money, maintain it, etc. (Although BOA’s $3 is excessive.) My gripe is when my own bank charges me a fee to use someone else’s ATM – for what is a totally electronic transaction.
I agree with other commenters about getting cash back from retailers. Almost all big grocery, discount, drug chains that I have been in will let you do this for no charge at all.