Beyond cash withdrawals

What else can ATMs do?

Most of us only ever use an ATM to take money out, so what else can ATMs do? Quite a lot. Many modern machines can pay money in, pay bills, change your PIN and even sell you electricity.

Much more than a cash dispenser

Early cash machines did one thing: hand out a fixed amount of cash. Today's ATMs are connected computers that can do much of what you'd once have queued at a bank counter for, any time of day or night.

Exactly what's on offer depends on your bank and the machine you're using. Many extra services only work at your own bank's ATMs. At other machines, you can usually only withdraw cash and check your balance.[1]

A modern touchscreen ATM showing a menu of options

Paying money in

  • Deposit cash

    Feed banknotes straight into the machine. It counts them, checks they're genuine and credits your account. Santander takes up to 100 notes at a time[1], and Bank of Cyprus updates your balance instantly.[2]

    • Santander UK
    • Bank of Cyprus
    • Wells Fargo
    • Chase

  • Deposit cheques

    No envelope or branch visit needed. The machine scans the cheque itself. Santander and Chase accept up to 30 cheques in one go.[1][4]

    • Santander UK
    • Chase
    • Bank of Cyprus
    • Wells Fargo

Moving money

  • Transfer between accounts

    Move money between your own accounts, for example from savings to your current account.[1][4] Santander also lets you pay people you've already set up as payees.[1]

    • Santander UK
    • Chase
    • Wells Fargo
    • Bank of Cyprus

  • Pay bills and credit cards

    Pay saved bills at Santander machines[1], or pay your credit card, mortgage or home equity bill at select Chase ATMs.[4]

    • Santander UK
    • Chase
    • Wells Fargo
    • SBI

  • Send money abroad

    FNB in South Africa lets you send and receive MoneyGram money transfers, and send money to an eWallet, straight from the ATM.[6]

    • FNB

Managing your account

  • Print a mini-statement

    See more than your balance: view or print your recent transactions. SBI's mini-statement shows your last 10.[5]

    • Santander UK
    • SBI
    • FNB
    • Wells Fargo

  • Change or unblock your PIN

    One of the most useful extras. If you've entered your PIN wrongly too many times, Santander machines can unblock it too.[1][7]

    • LINK ATMs
    • Santander UK
    • Bank of Cyprus
    • SBI

  • Update your settings

    Some banks let you change your card spending limits or update the mobile number on your account at the machine.[5][3][6]

    • SBI
    • Wells Fargo
    • FNB

  • Order banking products

    Request a new chequebook[2][5], apply for a credit card at SBI[5] or open an investment account at FNB.[6]

    • Bank of Cyprus
    • SBI
    • FNB

Cash without a card

  • Tap your phone or watch

    Left your card at home? Add it to Apple Pay, Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet, hold your phone or smartwatch over the contactless symbol and enter your PIN.[4][3]

    • Chase
    • Wells Fargo

  • Use a code from your banking app

    Some banks generate a one-off code or QR code in their app that you enter at the ATM to withdraw cash with no card at all.[5][6]

    • SBI (YONO Cash)
    • FNB

Surprising extras

  • Get foreign currency

    Some LINK ATMs in the UK dispense euros or US dollars[7], and selected Bank of Cyprus machines give out US dollars and pounds.[2]

    • Some LINK ATMs
    • Bank of Cyprus

  • Donate to charity

    Wells Fargo customers can donate to the American Red Cross directly from the ATM.[3] LINK also lists charity donations as an ATM service.[7]

    • Wells Fargo
    • LINK
    • SBI

  • Buy electricity and phone credit

    At FNB ATMs you can buy prepaid electricity, mobile airtime and data bundles.[6]

    • FNB

  • Make it your own

    Choose which notes you want ($1s up to $100s at Wells Fargo), pick from eight languages, get your receipt by email instead of paper, or save your favourite “fast cash” amount.[3][1][4]

    • Wells Fargo
    • Santander UK
    • Chase

Services shown are examples from each bank's own website and vary by country, bank and machine. Check with your bank before you rely on one.

The clever ones: cash recyclers

Most ATMs that take deposits simply store the notes until staff empty the machine. A cash recycler goes further. It checks each deposited note is genuine and fit to use, then pays those same notes out to the next customer who makes a withdrawal.

That means the machine needs refilling far less often. When a US credit union trialled a Diebold recycling ATM, it expected its busiest machines to go from being refilled once or twice a week to just once every three months. One configuration could recycle up to 10,800 notes.[8]

SBI calls these machines Automated Deposit and Withdrawal Machines (ADWMs). They handle both deposits and withdrawals, and you can pay cash in with or without a card.[5]

A person taking banknotes from an ATM cash slot

Everything one visit can involve

An advanced ATM can do all of this in a single visit, which is a lot more computing and machinery than you'd expect from something that looks like a vending machine.

  1. Card or phone
  2. Check who you are
  3. Connect to your bank
  4. Accept cash
  5. Verify the notes
  6. Update your account
  7. Transfer or pay bills
  8. Dispense cash
  9. Print or email a receipt

What's inside to make it all work

All those services mean an ATM isn't just a box of cash. It packs in all of this:

It's also why attacking one is far harder than simply “getting to the money”. Just ask the characters in Breaking Bad's “Peekaboo”.

How ATMs are protected

References

  1. Santander UK (n.d.). At the cash machine. Santander UK support.
  2. Bank of Cyprus (n.d.). ATM. Bank of Cyprus digital banking.
  3. Wells Fargo (n.d.). ATM tour. Wells Fargo.
  4. JPMorgan Chase (n.d.). Do more at a Chase ATM. Chase.
  5. State Bank of India (n.d.). ATM Services. SBI Personal Banking.
  6. First National Bank (FNB) (n.d.). ATM. FNB South Africa, ways to bank.
  7. LINK (n.d.). Services. LINK, the UK's cash machine network.
  8. Birch, R. (2014). Suncoast CU to test Diebold cash-recycling ATM. American Banker, 31 March 2014.