ATMs fill the need for cash anytime

Machines are last vestige of unregulated capitalism

If you want to put an ATM machine in your business to satisfy your customers’ need for cash, don’t expect to get one at a bank.

A bank seems like the logical place to get a machine that deals with dispensing money, but such is not the case. ATMs are largely unregulated.

If Joe Blow wants to supplement the income he gets from the winter wheat farm by fixing up and selling old ATM machines, he’s perfectly free to do so.

“Basically, you charge what the market will bear,´ said Richard Fulkerson, director of the Colorado Banking Commission. “Fees aren’t regulated. San Francisco tried to limit fees a few years ago and they lost in court.”

ATMs first gained popularity in the early 1980s. Before the advent of the ATM, you had to go to a teller to get the money you wanted, and the teller wasn’t around at the same time you needed money for the movie theater.

“Nevada and some other states wanted to open up these things for the first time,´ said Fulkerson. “When they did, and the bugs in them were worked out, they sprang up everywhere. First in bank vestibules, then in drive throughs.

“They are another way of providing a service,´ said Fulkerson.

Which prompts the question: Where can you get one?

Ryan Gloden, a personal banker with the Bank of Colorado, says a bank can be a good place to start, especially if the bank deals with ATMs at all. If it doesn’t, a bank might be able to give you the name of someone who does.

The key is “might be able.” Expect to get a long chorus of “I don’t knows” before you strike gold. Many banks don’t lease or sell ATMs at all. Tom Byington, president of First National Bank Holding Co., says First National is one that doesn’t. The holding company also owns First State Bank of Fort Collins, which only owns three machines and leases none.

The ATM is one of the last unregulated vestiges of capitalism. If you plan to lease one, there is little uniformity. “It depends on who owns the machine,´ said Byington. “It (also) depends on who you are. Why regulate them? The consumer makes the determination whether or not to use them.”

Fulkerson does offer some ATM basics: An average machine costs around $50,000 and the average charge is about $1.50 per transaction. That may sound a lot like charging someone for using his or her own money — which is true — but then putting your money into a bank isn’t exactly free, either. An ATM is more a delivery system than anything else. Machine charges are changing all the time, too. Once, it was common to charge someone for using an ATM to deposit money, even if you were using a machine owned by the same bank that had your account. This is unheard of today.

Fulkerson said the next generation of ATMs is coming down the pipe, too. “You will be able to get stamps from ATMs and tickets to sporting events,” he said. “You are already starting to see them.”

Gloden also said if you have an ATM in your store, there are some common-sense things you will have to keep in mind. Number one, you will be responsible for filling it with money. Globen recommends about $4,000 “right off the top of my head.” If the machine is in a high-traffic area, which many retail operations try to do in order to get the foot traffic, it may require more to keep up with the demand.

Number two, keep maintenance in mind. Whoever owns an ATM is responsible for keeping it up. Few things are more annoying than rushing to an ATM machine, card in hand, only to find a big “out-of-order” sign on it.

Number three, communications. If you have an ATM machine, there has to be some way for it to communicate with the cards the customers put into it. That means a dedicated phone line for the machine every time someone swipes a card through it.

The best ATMs come with a technician who makes sure it’s running and makes sure it stays that way. They operate under a service contract arrangement, but not always because the people who sell or lease ATMs can vary widely. The most important thing to remember is that whoever owns the machine is responsible for it.

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