How to Stop using ATMs

March 12, 2011 by

 

ATM Machin Babe-Woman-Sexy-Sex-Hottie-Babe
 
 

I have been using the ATM system ever since I had my first bank account, dating back to 1995.  In those younger days, unfortunately I was dumb enough and used any bank’s ATM or those quick convenient ATMs on the go, in the malls, grocery stores and gas stations. Part of it was simply laziness, other part was I really didn’t care and lastly, I was young, stupid and inexperienced. There, I said it. Over the year I became wiser, especially in those college years, because my college happened to be filled with an ATM at every entrance/exit point to the school. I realized how much I was paying in fees. Why? Because I was lazy to plan ahead, by having cash or jump in the car and drive to a branch with the bank I was banking with.
 

Currently in Canada there are 55,000 ABMs, only which 17,000 of them are owned by bank’s them selves. That’s only 31 percent. Shocking. I was floored when I read this. The rest of the ABMs (38,000 to be exact) are owned by individuals who want your money, in exchange for providing you the convenience.

If you think about it, I never truly understood why a bank charges you to use the ATM, but for you to use an ATM, is not free or you can only have “X” amount of transactions per month. Hello? The bank teller costs far more, than a stupid ATM machine. Teller services are free and ATM services are only free to an extent. Never makes any sense. Anyone care to educate me more, so maybe it does make sense or am I right?

So I’m sure you are asking your self; “I can’t stop using my ATM, I need to withdraw cash”. Sorry, but you’re wrong. You can stop using on the go ATMs and below are a few suggestions, to not only to save you money, but make you more aware about your money.

1. Plan Ahead

If you are going out on Friday night and you know you will need cash, than simply plan ahead. Don’t get to your destination, realize you forgot to get some cash and use the ATM at your local destination. I guarantee you, you will endup paying a fee between $1.50-$3, for simply not being organized, not planning ahead and I will toss in a bit of stupidity in there too. With that being said, plan ahead. Stop at your local bank branch or on the go convenience stop. For example, I bank with RBC and Esso gas stations are affiliated with my branch, make it easier for me to withdraw money, rather than finding an actual RBC branch.

2. Negotiate with your Bank

Part of you being a loyal customer to your bank, should give you some negotiating power. That being said, go in, talk to your account rep or branch manager and get them to include a “few” FREE “other bank branch withdrawals”. It does not cost them anything. It’s beneficial to you. I negotiated this years back and have “3 Free Other” transactions per month. Yay me!

3. Get it all for Free

One way to get FREE ATM fees and not pay any service fees, is to switch to a “B” type financial institution, such as PC Financial, ING Direct or even some credit unions. For this example, I will talk about PC Financial, because that is who I have chosen to have another bank account with. I don’t pay any monthly banking fees, online banking is included and the kicker to it all, PC is affiliated with CIBC, giving me access to over 3,800 machines to withdraw from across Canada. That means I can withdraw money at any CIBC branch or ATM and all for FREE. Check out here.

Filed Under: Saving & Budgeting

Comments

  1. CnC says:
    March 14, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    I HATE paying to use ATM’s so I don’t. I am so with you on ways around it. Planning ahead is not a tough thing to do and with bank hours becoming more and more reasonable it’s easy to even go into the branch if you need to!

    GAH!!! just thinking about ATM fee’s makes me mad haha