There is good and bad news for people constantly seeking out quick cash but can never find their bank’s ATM.
The good news is surcharges for using “foreign” machines appear fixed while the bad news is the fees don’t appear to be going away any time soon.
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“Consumers will keep ATM prices in check simply because there is too much competition out there for a bank to continue to increase fees,” said John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association in Washington.
The surcharges include a convenience fee for non-customers using an ATM and an “exchange fee” that banks charge their customers using another bank’s ATM. The national average for both kinds of fees is $1.21.
Hall said that charging fees for the service have become necessary for banks to increase the number of machines and to maintain them.
Banks serving Rhode Island joined the national trend to charge the fees in 1996, the year the PLUS and CIRRUS networks lifted a ban on access fees. Today, consumers who use a machine other than their bank’s can be charged two fees that can total as much as $3.
In Rhode Island and throughout the country, legislators and consumers have opposed the fees.
“A lot of people are very upset when their bank statement comes in at the end of the month and it is filled with these fees,” said Democratic Sen. Jonathan Oster of Lincoln.
Oster and Senator Patrick T. McDonald, D-Narragansett, sponsored a bill last session that would have limited the fees charged. The bill did not make it out of committee, but Oster said he will continue to push for it.
He said he doesn’t understand the need to charge fees, because customers are doing the banks a favor by using an ATM.
“Transactions by machine saves the bank money, because they are not required to pay for an employee to conduct that transaction,” he said.
Hall said the surcharges have been an important source of revenue for a bank in funding the installation of new machines. He added that the consumer has made it clear that they want as many machines available as possible.
“There is now a tremendous amount of competition among banks in finding good locations for these machines,” he said.
He added that most machines would be eliminated if the fees were not allowed, because banks count on the revenue to support the ATMs.
Banks stress that in most cases the customer is not paying a fee at all.
“If you think about your ATM usage pattern the reality is that you use the same machine 80 percent of the time. Hopefully it is your bank’s ATM, where you don’t have to pay a fee at all,” said Bank Rhode Island president and CEO Merrill W. Sherman.
She said her bank, which doesn’t have nearly as many ATM locations as a bank like Fleet, has also offered good customers waivers on fees charged to them when they use another bank’s machine.
Some banks are also lowering the surcharge costs to help keep customers.
In October, BankBoston will lower its $2 fee for Massachusetts customers using another bank’s ATM to $1.50. But, the bank also decided to begin charging a $1 fee to non-customers using their machines.
Bruce Spitzer, a spokesman for BankBoston, said all banks realize that customers have alternatives and if the fees get out of hand they will turn to those alternatives. But, he also said that the revenue is important in providing customers with additional services
“At BankBoston we have spent $100 million in the past 10 years in installing these machines and spend nearly that much each year in operating them,” he said. “We are also looking to give the machines greater functionality.”
He said along with banking options, BankBoston machines can be used to purchase stamps and could soon offer much more.
“Maybe the machines can be used for transit passes or concert tickets,” he said. “We want the customers to benefit as much as possible from this technology.”
