Re: U.S. Banks are not all that bad

[Scott Brickner <sjb@austin.ibm.com>]

Douglas Barnes writes:
>At First Interstate recently, I had to make a withdrawal from
>the teller, as the ATM was broken. Their policy _does_
>reqiure a "counter check", and normally they charge, but when
>I explained that the ATM was kaput they did it for free.
>It is _much_ cheaper for them if you use the ATM, and this
>kind of policy is designed to encourage you to do this. It's
>the kind of thing that the market will sort out nicely --
>if it irritates people and loses them money more than it
>saves them money, they will stop doing it.

Sure they're happier if you use the ATM.  It costs them less
per transaction, plus they *charge* you to use the damn thing.
How many people do you think would put up with $1.00 or $1.25
to do a transaction at a human teller?  Most banks charge about
that much for "foreign" (other than those they own) ATM use.
Some even charge that much for *all* ATM use if you don't get
the "premium" accounts.