New ATMs remove fear of putting pay into machine

Business Report Correspondent Automatic teller machines are getting smarter.

The new ?smart? ATMs can scan deposited checks, lessening fears of those who are reticent about inserting their hard-earned money into a machine. When users put their checks into the ATM, they see images of the deposited check on the screen. They can even have the check image printed onto the receipt to keep as a record.

The first of these new and brighter ATMs landed in Boulder County this fall at the University of Colorado’s (CU) Federal Credit Union. The credit union has installed the ATMs at two branch locations: 2960 Diagonal Highway in Boulder and 1900 W. South Boulder Road in Lafayette.

Celeste Murphy, a marketing officer at CU’s credit union, said the ATM is getting ?a lot of use.

?The customer loves it. More and more people are using it and using it regularly,? Murphy said. ?People are getting over the fear of putting their money into a machine and feeling comfortable knowing that their deposits are safely credited to their accounts.?

Murphy said the fear factor isn’t relegated to a particular age group. ?Both young and old have been fearful about depositing checks at ATM,? she said.

The ATMs are saving the credit union money, too. According to an independent consultant for the credit union, the average cost of a live teller transaction is $2.45, while the average ATM cost is $.75.

Murphy said these costs are rough estimates and that transaction costs do vary and are dependent on usage. Nevertheless, they could add up to serious savings; the CU credit union sees an average of more than 82,000 transactions a month, according to Murphy.

The ATMs come from Diebold Inc., the self-service-delivery-systems provider in Canton, Ohio, which introduced the concept of a cash-dispensing automated teller machine in 1966. Cassie Metzger, a spokeswoman for Diebold, said the company has been offering the capability to print an image of the check on the receipt since 1999.

Diebold estimated that 49 billion checks were written in the United States last year, and that number is predicted to increase.

The company said that the check-processing procedure affects merchants, financial institutions, automated clearing houses and federal reserve banks through high costs and long processing periods. In the future, with the use of electronic check-retrieval methods, Diebold said these costs can be reduced dramatically.

?Check-image retrieval at the ATM reduces branch and call center operating costs by moving these routine transactions to a lower-cost, self-service delivery channel,? said David Bucci, senior vice president of customer solutions at Diebold. ?In addition to providing consumers with a convenient access point to view or print the image of a previously written check, it’s faster than the system currently used today.?

Diebold said that check-image retrieval can take up to five or more business days to complete with the microfilm archiving systems currently used. Other features such as the ability to order new checks, verifying the amount of a certain check, and verifying whether a check has cleared may be added to an ATM to expand the transactions available to customers.

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