Are ATM's a no-brainer or not worth the trouble?

[rbh]

$2.50, was at $2 for quite a while until recently.

[BBG_LLC]

For those that have ATM's, are all of your locations with ATM's attended? Does anyone have one in an unattended mat?

[MrMachine]

I suggest to price the surcharge so you get enough people using your ATM to allow you to walk out of your Mat with a relatively small amount of money.
In other words, let the ATM make your bank deposits for you.

Even if you price your ATM at only $1.00 per transaction, you will still come out way ahead of all the merchant charges incurred if you accepted CC's.

Plus, you'll bring in a lot of new traffic, get the cash safely out of your Mat, and you'll look great in offering a convenient service at a bargain price.

Also if you want, you can conpensate for the low fee by trimming down how much money your ATM will dispense.

It's a very useful tool for Mats.

[mjwalsh]

Originally Posted by Danlaundry

Those that have an ATM, please state your service charge amount.
Thanks

Dan & others,

We get $2.00 surcharge plus we pick up an extra over $15 average per month when they use a credit instead of a debit. A bank & some credit unions here in town pick up the total debit expense for their customers which in my opinion is a plus.

There are plenty of customers getting a free printout just checking out their account balance which we do not discourage. If they take the printout with them our name is on the printout which seems to be free advertising to some extent.

We have something to lobby manufacturers for ... in my opinion ... when it comes to ATMs & that is ... so they also give out the choice of the number of dollar coins along with the choice of bills without costing too much more for the feature.

Giving out $5s works for us.

mike walsh king koin of bismarck

[DaveLevenson]

I'll answer a couple of questions posted in this thread:

Surcharge: $1.00. I also impose a $50 limit per transaction. (Remember, I dispense $5 bills, so a $50 withdrawal is ten notes.) The intent is to make it easy (or attractive) for customers to spend their money in my store. If someone really wants $100, they can pay a $2 surcharge by running two transactions. Other ATM's in the neighborhood charge that much and allow a $100 max, so we're competitive with them, but easier on the typical laundromat customer who only needs $10 or so per visit.

My mat is unattended nights and weekends. I had the ATM bolted to the floor with its back-side hard against a concrete-block wall. The intent was to make it hard to wrap a chain around the machine and drag it out of its mountings with a motor vehicle. My location is in a relatively safe suburban area, where vandalism is mild and infrequent. I never put more than $1,000 in the machine. The machine cost me about $1,800 installed, so the cost of a totally-destroyed or stolen machine won't exceed $2,800 -- about the cost of a 20-lb front load washer these days.

[MrMachine]

Originally Posted by DaveLevenson

I'll answer a couple of questions posted in this thread:

Surcharge: $1.00. I also impose a $50 limit per transaction. (Remember, I dispense $5 bills, so a $50 withdrawal is ten notes.) The intent is to make it easy (or attractive) for customers to spend their money in my store. If someone really wants $100, they can pay a $2 surcharge by running two transactions. Other ATM's in the neighborhood charge that much and allow a $100 max, so we're competitive with them, but easier on the typical laundromat customer who only needs $10 or so per visit.

My mat is unattended nights and weekends. I had the ATM bolted to the floor with its back-side hard against a concrete-block wall. The intent was to make it hard to wrap a chain around the machine and drag it out of its mountings with a motor vehicle. My location is in a relatively safe suburban area, where vandalism is mild and infrequent. I never put more than $1,000 in the machine. The machine cost me about $1,800 installed, so the cost of a totally-destroyed or stolen machine won't exceed $2,800 -- about the cost of a 20-lb front load washer these days.

Dave, Great strategy on the surcharge and limit!!!

I also like your installation. Since it's up against a concrete wall, have you considered throwing a couple of lag bolts through the back of the machine's shell into that wall? That would increase it's security greatly!

[Duane]

$1.50 surcharge (average in the area is $2.25) and I have a through the wall unit and I am unattended.

My ATM is on the left of the attached picture.

[DaveLevenson]

Originally Posted by MrMachine

... Since it's up against a concrete wall, have you considered throwing a couple of lag bolts through the back of the machine's shell into that wall? That would increase it's security greatly!

I had not considered it, but thank you, Paul, for the suggestion! My changers are mounted on that same wall, with long bolts through the wall, welded to steel bars on the other side. The ATM could have been mounted in exactly the same way, though it is much heavier and is designed to stand on the floor. But bolting it to the wall and the floor sounds like a good idea.

[MrMachine]

Originally Posted by DaveLevenson

I had not considered it, but thank you, Paul, for the suggestion! My changers are mounted on that same wall, with long bolts through the wall, welded to steel bars on the other side. The ATM could have been mounted in exactly the same way, though it is much heavier and is designed to stand on the floor. But bolting it to the wall and the floor sounds like a good idea.

I had a floor drop safe once that I had welded to a steel plate in the basement.

Some guys broke in but couldn't get the safe out.
They even hammered cast iron wedges (wood log splitters) under the safe but couldn't get it. All the while the alarm was blaring way, so they had to give up.

I ended up with a nice package of burglar's tools and a cool leather jacket, lol.

[TuckBoy]

Duane---Hi I am originally from Toledo but do not hold that against me. Wanted to ask what type of ATM you have, how satisfied you are with its performance and a ballpark cost of the unit.