ATMs aren't just for cash anymore

Cell phone minutes: Euronet also claims to be the world's largest processor of prepaid cell phone airtime. Though the company's ATM features are not yet available in the United States, industry experts expect they will be soon.

"The ATM is the most trusted and well-utilized self-service product on the market. It is also naturally a vault," Nuttall says. "It is something people already know how to use, and it becomes a natural destination of choice for many purchases."

Elizabeth Rowe, an analyst with Mercator Group in Massachusetts and an author of the group's 2008 study on ATM innovation, agrees. "Until consumers can print cash from their home computers, the ATM will remain a key point of interaction between consumers, their cash balances and their bank."

Perhaps not all interactions, however. The Mercator report suggests that, for one, ticket sales via ATMs are not likely to take off. Rowe says: "An ATM is not where someone goes to get movie tickets. Why? Because it's weird."

Personalization: As ATMs become "smarter" and know more about their customers, they will also offer more services, industry experts say. Repeat customers might be automatically greeted in their preferred language and offered their customary cash withdrawal. An ATM that knows a customer's family status might prompt a cash seeker to fill out a credit card or home equity application on the spot.

Other advertising opportunities are already employed in Europe, where ATM customers are given the option to donate a portion of a withdrawal to a charity. Third-party advertising is also common abroad and an inevitability in the United States.

Deals: Further, experts expect to see offers that are hard to refuse. For example, when a customer requests a $200 withdrawal, the machine might ask if she would prefer $100 cash and a $100 gift card -- plus a $20 bonus on the card. The financial institution would have cut a deal with the card issuer and passed the savings on to the customer.

Better ATM is already offering similar deals through its gift card feature, giving out $25 Restaurant.com certificates with purchases of $25 Amazon cards. Nuttall also soon expects to offer gift cards that can be used anywhere credit cards are accepted.

Amanda Vega of Phoenix says it can go too far, though. She frequently uses Wells Fargo's stamp dispensing feature but gets annoyed when the same machine attempts to sell her financial services.

"It's quite annoying when you have to watch commercials just to get your money," Vega says. "Especially when you just need $20 in a hurry."

This article was reported by Emma Johnson for CreditCards.com.

Published March 20, 2009

< previous |  1 | 2 |