Douglas Barnes writes:
At First Interstate recently, I had to make a withdrawal from the teller, as the ATM was broken. Their policy _does_ reqiure a "counter check", and normally they charge, but when I explained that the ATM was kaput they did it for free. It is _much_ cheaper for them if you use the ATM, and this kind of policy is designed to encourage you to do this. It's the kind of thing that the market will sort out nicely -- if it irritates people and loses them money more than it saves them money, they will stop doing it.
Sure they're happier if you use the ATM. It costs them less per transaction, plus they *charge* you to use the damn thing. How many people do you think would put up with $1.00 or $1.25 to do a transaction at a human teller? Most banks charge about that much for "foreign" (other than those they own) ATM use. Some even charge that much for *all* ATM use if you don't get the "premium" accounts.