ATM Surcharges, Number of Banks Assessing Them, Rise Again

More banks than ever now levy surcharges on ATM transactions performed by non-customers, and the fee is now higher than ever, according to new data released this week by Bankrate.com, a service of Bankrate Inc. The average ATM surcharge is now $1.60, up from $1.54 in the fall of 2005, when the North Palm Beach, Fla.-based firm, which tracks financial-services pricing, released its last study of the fee. The current average, indeed, is up 20% from just two years ago, when the average surcharge was $1.32. All told, the research company estimates consumers who make withdrawals at machines belonging to banks not their own will pay $4.2 billion this year in surcharges and fees assessed by their own banks. At the same time, bankrate.com found that the number of institutions assessing surcharges on non-customers continues to grow. Some 98% of banks owning ATMs now levy the fee, up from 91% a year ago and 89% two years ago. The firm says Washington Mutual's decision last fall to reinstate surcharges prompted many banks to follow suit. On the other hand, the study found that the fee banks charge their own customers when they use ATMs belonging to another deployer fell to an average of $1.29 from $1.37 last fall. And the number of banks hitting customers with this fee has also dropped, from 89% a year ago to 81% now. With this fee headed in the opposite direction from that followed by surcharges, the estimate of the total cost to consumers of using ATMs belonging to banks not their own actually dropped slightly from the $4.3 million Bankrate.com estimated for 2005. The study, which also analyzed fees for checks written against non-sufficient funds, found the average bounced-check fee increased from $26.90 last fall to $27.04, second only to the $27.13 the firm found in its spring study last year. According to some observers, this fee is of interest to banks as an important source of income in signature-debit card programs (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 1, 2005). For its study, Bankate surveyed 248 financial institutions across 25 of the country's largest markets.