What is Digg?56 Comments
- ZeroMP, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7According to the US Treasury Department the average cost of an ATM transaction to a bank is $0.27. When ATMs (and ATM fees) were first introduced you'd pay around 50 to 75 cents for a transaction at a foreign ATM - but when the banking industry realized that people were willing to pay this charge for the convenience of the closest ATM the fees began to increase.
It doesn't cost the banks any more money to complete this transaction now than it did then - they are just sapping your money from you because you are too lazy to travel to their specific ATM... as long as people are doing this there is no encouragement for that bank to place more ATMs in more convenient areas.
Iowa and Connecticut have outlawed these excessive fees.
Learn more here: http://www.stopatmfees.com/ - dragonmantank, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Actually, since a lot of money is no longer backed by gold, technically it is...
- dankoleary, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8If you are in the US Armed Forces, or a direct descendant of one, check your eligibility for USAA. They reimburse for ATM fees, and are pretty much the best bank ever.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8You don't expect women to do that for free, do you?
Oh..Automated Teller Machine...nevermind. - nickroy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6USAA is definietly for enlisted, officers, active duty, guard/reserve, etc. Saved a load over what GEICO was giving for car insurance.
- Omniac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6When I got my Compass Banking account 4 years ago, they were reimbursing ATM fees then. And they still do. Still good to see more banks doing this though.
- mdipthong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Cool! Good for US Bank. Instead of suing banks for levying surcharges, someone is finally trying to use it for their business advantage. The joys and way that a market economy should work.
- theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Ahahaha ATM charging! crazy Americans!
- plarp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7the gold standard doesn't make money fake or not..
before, during, and after the gold standard money only has the value of what people deem it to be worth.. it is a commodity.. you can try and tie it to another commodity(such as the gold standard) but at the end of the day that type of logic is frivoluous (hense the reason we went off the gold standard). - hartist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Actually USAA is for families of officers as well. My step dad was a vetran and I have a USAA bank account.
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4There are very few banks which charge for use of their own machines. Using another bank's machine generally involves a surcharge by that bank and sometimes by your own bank. However, as more and more people get fed up with this sort of thing, it goes away. Banks have been offering "free atm" as draws for a while now, by eliminating their own fees and compensating for other banks fees.
The thing is that banks didn't tend to compete for checking and saving accounts and such, in the past. They competed heavily on loans and such, and so all their focus was put onto that. But a few banks started offering perks like these, and customers started switching. Switching banks, up until then, was seen as a bit of a hassle. But as the idea of switching banks for everyday usage gets more in the public's mind, and as it becomes easier to do (it's actually extremely easy already, most people just don't know that), then competition for these sort of accounts opens up more.
Checking and savings accounts used to be seen by banks as just a necessary cost of doing business, the real money was made on loans. However, people tend to stick to the same banks for everything, and losing these customers loses them higher end business as well as depleting the bank's interest earning cash reserves.
Eventually ATM usage will be wholly free in the US. But it will take a willingness by the public to not put up with the current BS that banks get away with. - therernospoons, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Compass Bank in the U.S., has been offering Free ATMs on Earth...they rebate other fees banks charge, even international banks.
- jdemarti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4USAA is for enlisted and their families as well.
- gwalbridge, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Screw WaMu? I'll bet you like Bank of America and their wealth of arbitrary fees for literally *anything*
I'm surprised they don't have a "you've entered our bank through the front door fee" of $15. - democracysucks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4USAA bank accounts stay with you. If your parents were military, you can have an account. Since you had an account, your children can have an account. If they have accounts, their children can have accounts, etc.
USAA gives refunds for ATM fees, has overdraft protection, and gives you a huge credit limit, great interest rates, etc. They're also the only company I know of where you ALWAYS get to talk to a human representative almost immediately--no robots. - BionicBeefpile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3FTA:
"'For $20, I paid $25,' Gustafson said, bemoaning the fees levied by both the bank that ran the machine and by his own bank for using someone else's machine."
Ok, so fees suck, but why not just take out more cash? At least that way you can feel like you're "diluting" the fee ($5 to take out $20 sucks, but the same to take out $200 doesn't seem quite so bad, and it saves a trip to your own bank's ATM later).
Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this way... - overlordmead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@frogpelt
"Gold is no different than paper money in many ways. It is a tangible resource that people have assigned value to. If the economy collapsed, gold would essentially be just as worthless as paper money would be."
wtf man! Are you a professor of doublespeak? Gold is totally different than paper money in the fact that it is a TANGIBLE resource of limited supply whereas money is not at all. It might feel tangible in your physical in-your-hands mini-world but that is not the same. If the world economy went to ***** money would become useless as a commodity, gold is valuable due to it's relative scarcity on earth.... we can't make more gold once we've mined it all; Governments can always print more money. - anorris, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5No US money is backed by anything but the American government, so yes, pretty much it is all fake money...
- Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I don't know how people can stomach paying those fees, especially when they're fairly easy to avoid with a little planning.. and instead of taking out $20 take out $100! You'll only have to find an ATM 20% of the time you do if you're taking out $20.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2first atms were free,
then they started charging to use a teller
then tellers went back to free and atms started charging a fee
then they started charging fees(double charging) for using other banks..
then banks got on the same network and they still charge fees to use other banks
and now we are back at square one.. free atms
as soon as they get enough customers back they will charge again/. - kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've long known that the total amount necessary to do the transaction was dirt cheap. After all, all you need is a connection to a database in essence. I'd be willing to pay 50 cents, but around here it's $2.00 if you use a foreign atm, and then your local bank zaps you about the same. So for a $20.00 transaction you just paid a fee of 20%. That's usury by any definition and I'm glad that some states have outlawed the practice.
- NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ah, there goes Digg's broken reply system again.
- BuddhaChu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If that ever happens we'll all end up with a bunch of money in our matresses and not in banks.
- dankoleary, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My fiance works for WAMU, and banks with USAA. What does that tell you?
- n8r0n, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I ditched USAA when they fired a bunch of vets and prior service members that worked for them and outsourced the work to cheap labor. USAA is not that great of a company, especially their insurance division.
USAA is for anyone who has been in the military, as well as thier families. - theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually in Britain we have free love along with the NHS - it was part of the socialism revolution of the 60s.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Another ++ for USAA, they kick ass. Exceptionally good customer support (very short hold times, speak to an actual person) and no fees to be had. They don't charge you ATM fees and they reimburse you the fees other banks charge.
- kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I recently switched to Wamu. They don't whack me when I use a foreign ATM but I still pay the local ATM fee which is up to $2.00 or so.
Lets put it this way, if I only took $20 it'd be 10%, still excessive but it iritates me less than 20% or higher. If I took out $200 it means one trip to the atm vs ten trips. It's $2 vs. $20. At the $200 level the fee is 1% - much better. And you're denying the bastard operators of the atm's a cut of YOUR money.
But I guarantee - in realatively short order if more people start doing that, the atm owners will do flat percentage based fees of withdrawals. Take out $20, 10% fee = $2.00, take out $200, 10% fee = $20.00 - shovel10, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1in Europe a couple of large banks made similar agreement, happy to see US is catching up, now the rest of the world.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3those Presto! ATM's at publix offer surcharge free useage as well (or at least they did, I haven't used one in a while).
Honestly, I could care less about the surcharge, just bring back the ability to withdraw money in multiples of 5! - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2An addendum to plarp's comment:
What makes gold valuable, beyond what value Man deems it?
Your comments about a gold standard are based on an arbitrarily assigned value. Some man, centuries ago, found a shiny, soft metal. He thought it was pretty. Another man saw it, liked it as well, and traded something for it. Thus the value of gold is born. - MobbyG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You would think, with all these fees, banks would take the extra monies from these fees and increase their ATM networks to better serve their customers.
Oh wait.. no.. I forgot.. banks want to make money. Not make customers happy. - Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1CC customers don't pay that 3%, the retailers do. You could argue that they pass that cost onto the consumer but that affects cash customers too.
- qvtqht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, Compass Bank rocks.
- Luyseyal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Austin has one of these networks for credit unions in the area. I can't even remember the last time I paid an ATM fee.
-l - shertzerj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There were a handful of ATMs when I lived in State College, PA that let you withdrawl money down to $1 bills. If you wanted $8, then bam, you could take out just $8.
- jpbleuu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1screw atm surcharges. number 1 reason why i belong to a credit union is they care more about thier customers then they do making a buck.
if i have to use a atm that is going to charge me to take money out they refund me the charge. which has gotten to be about 2 bucks out here in new england - hiro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The banks tried charging non customers for ATM withdrawals in the UK a few years back but it didn't last long
- B111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have wells fargo, but I guess if you have BoA or any other bank:
I get cash back at the supermarket, 7-11, gas station, or anywhere else they offer the serivce. And usually they do this for free. Sure you can't take out that much (usually 50 bucks max), but if I'm going to need a lot of cash, I might as well go to the bank. - rkenward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i worked at wamu. i know. and hell no i'm not with boa, i am with hsbc and citigroup (i work for one of them now)
- BuddhaChu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Agree on the above praise for USAA. I'm also a member after they opened up membership to the enlisted force a while back. One good thing about a "virtual bank" is that you don't need to do much when you move except maybe get new a address on your checks. One downside is having to mail in signed checks to deposit them.
The Pentagon Bank is good too a friend told me. - brufleth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2USAA is great. Being able to use any ATM without having to deal with 1-5 dollar fees is very nice. The people on the phone (not robots) are very helpful and friendly. I find I'm always in a good mood after talking to them because they do customer service right. Their website is actually quite usable too which was one of my many frustrations with Bank of America when it swallowed my previous bank.
- abiding99, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No Digg until Wells Fargo steps up to the plate.
- frogpelt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Gold is no different than paper money in many ways. It is a tangible resource that people have assigned value to. If the economy collapsed, gold would essentially be just as worthless as paper money would be. The true essence of the economy is trade. And when people decide that they will use currency to represent the indirect trade of goods or services, it makes no difference what the currency is.
- yujie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'll believe it when I see it
- ssulistyo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone in Germany, check out DKB (Deutsche Kredit Bank):
http://dkb.de/
Their accounts cost no fees whatsoever and they give you VISA card, with which you can get money out of any ATM worldwide without a fee. - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Once again, the value assigned to gold is totally arbitrary. Sure, maybe that value would hold in the event of a crisis which would eliminate national government systems that produce currency... But items have whatever value people assign to them. If currency is valued, such as paper dollars, and someone is willing to take that paper money in exchange for an item/service, then it has all of the value it needs. You all assume that gold has some inherent, logical value; that a person who has had no experience with gold, ever, in their entire life, nor any idea that it has any value in our historical context, will be able to look at gold and say, without a doubt, that it has value. If that person has absolutely no interest in shiny, soft metals, then gold is worthless to them.
- gdybdall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For the majority of "free" ATM use, does the customer have to request reimbursement (as I read on the Compass bank site today)? An offer from a bank providing free ATM use is nice, but a hassle if I have to ask for my money back each time.
I have checking with State Farm bank. They automatically reimburse $1.50 for ATM cash withdraws. Yes, the ATM charge is usually $2.00 here in AZ ($1.50 at M&I ATMs, $2.50 today at a Compass ATM), so I may not get it all back, but at least I don't have to submit my ATM receipt to get something back. - jpbleuu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1my fiancee has a bank of america checking account and when ever she uses one of thier atms they charge her.
screw bank of america. - edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3This has been the norm in the UK for as long as I can remember. Paying or cashing cheques INSIDE another bank's branch is another matter, but all ATMs are accessed for free here.
Though it sounds like people in the US are actually charged for using even their OWN bank's machines, which seems pretty ridiculous. -
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