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History of the Automatic Teller
XopherMV writes "The line was long and slow, and he became increasingly irritated as his lunch hour dribbled away. All at once, he had a flash of inspiration. 'Golly, all the teller does is cash checks, take deposits, answer questions like "What's my balance?" and transfer money between accounts,' recalls Wetzel, now 75 and still living in Dallas with his wife. 'Wow, I think we could build a machine that could do that!' And with a $4 million go-ahead from Docutel's parent company, that's exactly what he and his engineers did. Read more about the story of the ATM."
that I can get a transaction receipt from a Diebold ATM, but not from a Diebolt voting machine.
Actor. Actor. Actor. Actor. Actor. Actor. Actor. Jock. Actor. Actor. Jock. Actor. Actor. Jock.
I've heard they have a busniessman once in a while, but only the billionaire figurehead type.
Think they'd ever do a biography of the guy who invented one of best convenience devices ever created? No. I guess that's boring compared to Dubiously-Talented-Generic-Actress-Bint fretting over how hard it is to find a good sitter for her children's cat as they go on vacation to the South of France.
And people wonder why I'm a misanthrope.
--- Ban humanity.
From the article:
The success of the ATM inspired similar innovations (some more frustrating than others) in a number of nonfinancial industries as well. Full-service gas stations have all but given way to credit card-primed gas pumps. Delta Air Lines has 846 do-it-yourself check-in terminals in 83 U.S. cities. Kroger has self-check-out lanes in more than 1,400 supermarkets. And you can find similar aisles in 850 Home Depot stores.
Pay-at-the-pump stations are so convenient I will not use a traditional pay-inside gas pump unless absolutely necessary, even if it means going a bit out of my way. The self-service check-in option at the airport is a $DEITYsend, too: not checking any bags? Why muck around behind people who have never before seen the inside of an airport? Identify yourself to the kiosk with a credit card or frequent flyer card, get the boarding pass and go.
I find the self-serve lanes at store rather less useful, but am amazed at how quickly the ATM model has become both widespread and nearly indispensable.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Why is the hero of this story the chap in Dallas and not the guy in Enfield? Although his invention didn't have all the functionality of the moden machines it also allowed access to cash 24 hours a day, rather like cashing a cheque.
Would it be outrageous to supose that this spin might be because the inventor of the machine in Enfield was not American? Not that I would suggest Americans ever revise history...
So the bank "loses" $250/month on its own ATM. An entry-level teller making $10/hour will cost the bank over $1600/month in salary alone. If the bank didn't have an ATM in the doorway, the bank would need more tellers to handle the same volume of transactions. The bank should pay me for my ATM transactions for lowering their cost structure. (Instead they cut the number of free teller-assisted transactions to encourage you to go the machine.)
I think it's the same principle as my girlfriend putting ten pounds worth of petrol in her car every other day, instead of just filling the tank once a week - if she's got less, she's less likely to use it.
You know the feeling - wallet full of notes, let's go and spend some!
Predictive text is shiv!
I don't mind ATMs but one thing that does bug me is the progression to self-scan lanes in stores. It looks like a poor excuse to dump cashiers, and the systems are slower too. Four self-scan lanes seem to barely keep up with two cashiers, and still require intervention and supervision by at least one person. It seems like an effort to skimp on minimum wage work backfired, but still, I try to avoid going to stores that try to squeeze out another job by replacing it with bad service and an insulting and tedious self-scan system.
1) Some of us aren't credit worthy enough to get an actual credit card. I'm not.
2) If a parent wants to allow a teenager to have their allowance on a debit card, it's easier to control the amount that's available to spend.
d a v e
"Hmmm...upgrades."
I've seen some around here start showing up at my bank, M&T Bank, that will let you input any amount for a withdrawal and it will give you exactly that. I remember first noticing the machines and tested it with $24.99... which, unfortunately, it gave me, down to the last penny :) - the technology is there, although these ATMs take up a decent amount of space, and I've only seen them at branches of the banks themselves. These are the same machines that have the aforementioned full-color video screens and all that.
The supermarket across from our offices (UK) recently replaced two cashier positions with 6 self scan positions. They have one cashier attending these 6, not to take money but just to help people, and the volume of people that go through them is fantastic. When I pop in for lunch, I have the option of waiting in line for a cashier, or go through a self scan. The self scan positions always seem to be busy, but you never seem to have to wait for one to free up, they are that much quicker, and the transaction is faster as well.
:)
I got to speak to the technician who services them a few weeks back, and he said each position on average dealt with 150% more traffic during a day than the cashier it replaced. They are doing so well, he said they are looking at putting in more positions. Oh, and they run on WindowsNT4
From my own peculiar experience, the bank machine appears to be in decline. I lived in Canada for the first 10 or 15 years of bank machines. They were great. I did all my banking through them. By law, my own bank couldn't charge me to use it.
(The gov reasoned that since the banks were laying off all the tellers, they couldn't then charge customers to use the machines when the machines were saving the banks money, logically enough. And later, through the 90s, when the banks were selling off prime real estate in city centre's, which bank machines had made redundant, it seemed even less justifiable to charge customers.)
In the late 90s, I moved to the UK and realized
a) I had taken bank machines for granted (I hadn't even been to a bank since I was a kid!),
b) there weren't very many bank machines around,
c) making deposits was no longer possible, and
d) I was either going to walk miles and miles or pay a fee.
So it was a shock. To make matters worse, it seemed there were more generic "ATM" machines which charged £1.50 ($2.77US), than branded machines which could conceivably be free.
I mentioned this to a relative in Canada, who complained that the same thing was happening there. It seems that the banks have got around the charging restrictions in many countries by forming a kind of 3rd party consortium to provide generic "ATM" machines. Once established, the banks can then phase out the free machines, and ensure that everybody pays for every single transaction.
It's inconceivable that the banks could lose money from bank machines. No real estate, no buildings, no employees... how does one lose money? It's like claiming that electronic distrubution costs more than shipping physical product.
In any case, I think bank machines are in decline. There are fewer of them. The charges are rising. Rather than using a machine a few times a day, we now use it once once every two weeks, and then stuff the money under the mattress. That's not progress. In fact, one might be tempted to go back to using a teller and avoiding the charges - but of course, you'd need to find an actual, physical bank with actual, physical tellers.
Is this generic ATM scheme kicking in all over the world?
Is anyone doing anything to stop it?
Barclay