ATM Fee Payments at All-Time High

Convenience is valued but clearly not free. That lesson is clear from the market for automated teller machine (ATM) services. According to Bankrate.com, the consumer finance website that tracks interest rates and credit card fees, consumers will pay more than $2.26 billion in 2002 in ATM surcharges, an 18 percent increase over the $1.91 billion in fees paid in 1999. The growth stems from both greater usage of ATMs and higher fees per transaction. Customers pay, on average, $1.47 for using an ATM owned by a financial institution other than their own, up from $1.44 a year ago and $1.36 in 1999. In addition, about 80 percent of financial institutions charge their own customers an extra fee if they use a "foreign" ATM (one not owned by the customer's institution).