Following on from my earlier rant about cash machine charges, it’s good to see that the ATM operators are making good on their promise to be open and honest about their charging systems. For example, the ATM at the end of my road has been reprogrammed and has a brand new interface; the main change is that the text is positively gigantic. This is a good thing, as the machine is at roughly knee height.
Interestingly, though, the new font size doesn’t apply everywhere: there’s one bit of text that appears in rather small print. Here’s what you’ll see on the final screen when you’ve selected the amount of cash you want to withdraw:
PRESS HERE TO WITHDRAW YOUR MONEY——->
PRESS HERE TO WITHDRAW YOUR MONEY——->
PRESS HERE TO WITHDRAW YOUR MONEY——->
PRESS HERE TO WITHDRAW YOUR MONEY——->
withdrawal charge £1.75
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0 responses to “Cash machines, again”
Do you remember the good old days when ATMs were adjustable so that if you’re tall and willowy like me (ha!) you could move the thing up and down and noone else could read what was going on? Now I have to bend at the knees and lean backwards at every ATM I come across to read the display screen showing off my callisthenic skills. Is this the case worldwide? Or are the Swiss just shorter people?
I don’t recall ever seeing an adjustable ATM, but I do remember when the damn things were placed at a more reasonable height so that everyone could use them. I’m no giant – I’m 6’1″ – but I’ve spent the last few months hobbling around due to a back injury, and ATMs whose screen is lower than my waist ain’t much fun. In fact, you could argue that the charging adds insult to injury :-)
Occasionally you do find that those banks with multiple cash machines will put them all at different heights. Seems a bit pointless when you notice that this makes absolutely no difference to the people queueing.
Back in the Dark Ages of ATMs the screen was actually a single line LED display and you peered into it like you were looking through a mail slot. The viewing “window” pivoted up and down and was hence, adjustable. You should pity ms. mac because the promise of free love and an easy ride lured her to the Antipodes where these machines werre prevalent in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Remember when people refused to use ATMs because they preferred the teller inside the branch? These days, you’d have more chance of getting anything resembling intellect out of the Night Safe than you would out of the staff. Yay for ATMs!
My question is though: How do they justify the ever-increasing fee scales which are supposedly based on higher costs, but still generate record profits every year? Boo for banks in general!