Follow up: Bank of America new ATM
After all the responses I got from my post about Bank of America’s new ATM. I decided to do a little reading and give you guys some commentary.
These new ATMs are called Deposit Image ATMs, and if you do a search for nearby locations on BofA’s website, you will see that they’ve conveniently added a note to highlight their existence. Other banks may call them “envelope-less.” These machines have been around in pilot programs at least since 2006, probably even 2005 if not earlier.
Unfortunately, the people that actually took the time to comment on my site aren’t generally happy about these new ATMs. Some of them even threaten with leaving Bank of America altogether because of their experiences. I can’t blame them. I don’t like playing with my money, and I like it even less when my bank wants to play with it. On the other hand, I personally have not had any actual problems with BoA. I have been disappointed at times with a few issues, but I chalked those up to the standard cost of business; after all, you can’t expect any business to be 100% perfect all the time, for all their customers. The issues I’ve had with them were more about their customer service, and a one time fee that I didn’t agree with and they refused to remove. At this point I consider these new ATMs more of a novelty than anything so the fact that they are sometimes unavailable is not a problem for me. It just makes me wonder about the people in charge. The people that make decisions to roll this stuff out. Why not test them? Why not put procedures in place for proper maintenance? And why let ATMs remain broken for weeks or even months? This happens with all the banks I’ve had, and BoA is still by far the best bank I deal with.
So what’s the scoop with these new machines? Here’s Bank of America’s spin on it:
No envelopes or deposit slips needed. There is no need to add up the total deposits beforehand. Insert cash or checks (one at a time) into the ATM. You will receive an image of each check on your receipt.
All of this followed by their current slogan, Just another way we bring “Higher Standards“.
So here are my thoughts on this stuff:
No envelopes or slips needed. Wow, this is awesome and truly a time-saver. I mean I do like the fact that I don’t have to stand in line to use that minuscule work area they provide. I don’t have to wait 10 minutes for ol’ Mrs. Fields to finish up writing out her deposit slip for her social security check. I can just walk right up to the ATM make my deposit and walk right out. I also hate envelopes, I hate the nasty paper cuts you can get from them, I hate licking them and even more I hate the idea that we’ve wasted so much paper to transfer money to the person that will have to open the envelope and then chuck it away. What a waste! Oh and don’t even get me started when the envelope tray is empty and the bank has closed for the day!
There is no need to add up the total deposits beforehand. Hmmm, well this is a great concept and it shows how far technology has come. But, in practice I don’t see it as much more than a novelty. I don’t see any reasonable person turning in their money (cash or checks) without tallying them up in advance. Whether you do it at the ATM, or at home, or on your record keeping system, you should count the money before you deposit it. The banks use those fancy machines all the time to count thousands of dollars each minute, but this is different. Until this new technology is proven and improved, there is a chance that the machine will miss a bill or two, or misread the numbers in a check. Its a nice, and I still think its awesome that we can do this nowadays but “no need to add up the total deposits”? No thank you, I’ll count my money first.
Insert cash or checks (one at a time) into the ATM. I think this is the selling point for me, I can take a stack of all the one dollar bills I didn’t get to use the night before all at once and let the machine handle it for me. Just kidding, I usually don’t have any 1’s leftover. In practice, I’ve had good luck with the cash thing. The problem right now is that at least 3 of the closest machines for me aren’t even taking cash and haven’t for at least 1 month; thus defeating the whole purpose when I have a mixed deposit to make. Some of the people on my previous post complained about th fact that you can only do one check at a time. Specifically they mentioned that this is a problem for businesses where they may have a couple dozen checks or more. Yeah I can see this being a problem, since it takes 15-20 seconds to do one. In the other hand, if you’re depositing a few dozen checks at a time you should probably be using the business depository or a teller.
You will receive an image of each check on your receipt. Okay, this is just like number two, a great thing in concept but nothing more than a novelty. I would rather have the people that made these machines focus their initial efforts in accuracy and speed. Then they could work on fancy features like scanning the check and printing it on the receipt. Really, what is the purpose of that? If you have a dispute of some sort, you’ll need the actual canceled check, or at least a real copy. The printed copy in the receipt is not very legible anyway.
I hope these machines machines will be widespread sooner than later, but it may not happen for years. Some people I know are still reluctant to use a standard ATM. I can’t imagine them putting their money without an envelope into a machine. The concept alone may send shivers up their spine.
Apparently it costs the banks 10,000 to 15,000 to add image scanning capability to their ATMs, This report is from 2006, and I would think that as prices for equipment continue to improve, this number will come down to 4,000 to 7,000 in the near future. Regardless, the cost may serve to your advantage. Banks are always reluctant to spend money in their infrastructure. They are in the business to make money, not really in the customer service industry. If it doesn’t bring huge earnings or drive income, it will probably be slow to spread –as it is the case with most things.
My $0.02 for the people? Don’t expect much for a while, this is new and will take a while to perfect. I agree with you, most of the time these machines don’t deliver. I think a lot more could be done with this and its a great opportunity for big banks to take the lead in advancements but I doubt this will happen.
My $0.02 for the banks?
The jury is still out for these machines. The only way to make these machines widespread is if they fix the annoyances and increase the accuracy. The same article I quoted above cited a bigwig at one of the banks as saying, these machines have around 90% accuracy. Are you kidding me?! The accuracy needs to come up to 98-99% before people take it seriously. The machines need to be available around the clock with minimal downtime. They offer some savings to the banks, so why not put some serious money into this and be ready to quickly respond to problems and continue to upgrade them and fix them; hire competent technical people. Move fast! As we all know in the tech industry, the initial curve is steep but the faster you get over it the sooner you’ll start seeing positive results. People don’t want to be trained on yet another piece of technology. Don’t expect us to want to learn yet another piece of equipment; especially when the old one works great. Technology should be ubiquitous, consistent and intuitive. Take real feedback from your customers, send a rep out to the ATM for a day once in a while. Talk to the customers! Ask them a few questions, give them a Starbucks card or something for their time. Don’t hire a survey company for this. Then take that feedback and analyze it quickly. Make minute corrections along the way; roll these corrections out quickly.
Peace out.
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related: scan, novelty, bofa, boa, check
F BoA. 3 bucks to use their ATMS. What a rip off. I guess someone has to pay for these new machines…
I wouldn’t know really, I think they charge that only to non customers. I also (mostly) don’t use their ATMs for withdrawals. But most banks charge non-customers for withdrawals at their machines too.
As for me, I stick to my atm card most of the time. I don’t really get cash just for the sake of getting it. I know when I will need cash so I plan a visit to the atm instead of using another bank’s atm.
But if you really need cash, try a grocery store instead. Get a pack of gum or something and cash back. You get an item that you might need that is cheaper than the atm fee anyway and you get the cash too.
I really dislike the new machines. For a host of reasons, not the least of which being that it takes LONGER to put in checks and cash separately and then stand around waiting for the machine to do all its stuff, and if I’m depositing a lot of small bills at midnight (happens a lot, I’m a bartender), the last thing I want is to be standing around for a long time in the dark with all that cash flashing around.
It takes NO time to grab a few deposit envelopes when you’re at a machine, so you can bag up your deposit in the car or while you’re waiting for the person in front of you to get done, and then you just put the envelope in and you’re done. With the new machines, it could go fast–or it could be like yesterday, when the machine would take some of my bills but not all, and I ended up wasting a tremendous amount of time on something that would have gone a lot faster with an envelope.
Grrrr.
R U serious? there’s 3 bucks charge to use this stupid machine? Really really dislike these machine. There’s a looong line already of people who want to deposit their checks one at a time. So I decided today to just walk straight inside and deposit with the teller. And she asked “you didnt want to use the machine?” I’m all , darling do you not see theres 5 people in line per machine plus there’s only 2 ATMs?? I hope this just a trial thing BofA are doing. If they get enough negative feedbacks of the machines, maybe, just maybe they’ll change their minds.Thank you friends !
@Indri. Sorry I overlooked your comment, until now! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I agree, it doesn’t save a lot of time, but its still a neat idea. When I can just dump all the money into a bin and have it do all of it for me, including coins, and mixed bills then that’s progress. I definitely would not go to an ATM at night especially after bartending to a bunch of drunk horny guys… regardless of whether they take envelope less deposits or not.
@wendy
I think the 3 bucks to use the machine is if you’re not a customer and you’re withdrawing from it. I think other banks charge 2.50-5.00 depending on your area or the location. Like if you go to an amusement park like Disneyland, you probably pay more than if you get cash at the mall. But this definitely is not a fee to make deposits. Or withdrawals if you’re a customer with them. I think Wamu is the only bank that does not charge you to use their ATMs.
I hate this new system! It just sucks! Im at the ATM far far too long! I feel like a sitting duck for trouble!! Seriously! Inserting one check or bill at a time.. WTF? Lame.. Most people want to be in and out of the bank quick-like. I know I do! The stupid machine doesn’t even read my paycheck from Ralphs! Give me a break! I hate this New ATM SHIT!
Well lovely people, I guess Bank of Amercia patrons have to get used to this new ATMs or close your accounts and move on. They’re not pulling the machines out. They’re in fact growing. If you have direct deposit from your place of work, I would definitely use that. As far as deposit goes, if you have multiple checks, you might as well go inside the bank and do it that way. I’m tired of arguing with BofA. Have a good day.
@neinerlove,
Thanks for stopping by, That sucks that your paycheck can’t even be read at these machines. Good luck to you.
@Wendy, I didn’t think that they would pull them out. I think they’ve spent a lot of money on them. The one thing I wish is that they would at least fix the ones that are already out there. There are 3 of these new machines near me and all of them have been unable to accept cash for at least 2 months now.
And yeah, I agree… until these atms get fixed and more accurate, you might as well use the regular machines that take envelopes or a real teller inside the bank.
Contrary to most people commenting, I really love the new ATMs and hope that B of A upgrades all their ATMs to this technology. I’ve heard about the technology years ago (it’s been around for decades in Asia) and have been waiting for one of the banks in my local area to install this technology, ready to switch away to whatever bank introduces it near me.
Ideally they’d keep the option to use an envelope (which would be more efficient if you had like 5 or more checks), like PNC bank, but I doubt they’re interested in spending all this money for these deposit image ATMs just to have people continue to use them the old way. I generally only have 1-3 checks to deposit at a time, and maybe $100 in cash or so. Since I have direct deposit I only need to deposit the occasional rebate checks and gift checks.
My old bank required me to find an envelope (which might be missing, or wet from the rain) write my name, address and phone number on the outside envelope, and the amount of my deposit, and which account the deposit is for. Then write all the same information all over again on a deposit slip (which also might be missing). Nevermind that you might not have a pen on you. Double-count and total up the money. And then you might not even receive full credit for the deposit until the day after tomorrow, or even later. I think about the armored truck coming to haul away my tiny deposit, and the people having to painstakingly open, count, and double-count the money.
This system is as easy as withdrawing your money, slide the card, open your wallet grab the money/checks, and slide them in. Your deposit is accounted for immediately, instead of having to have the faith of the envelope making it safely to the ATM center (where ever that is), and it being processed correctly… up to 4 days later. No more fustrating than buying a soda at a vending machine with a dollar bill.
With ATMs being ubiquitious for cash withdrawals, and debit cards accepted anywhere, the only reason I need a branch (with their crappy 9-4 hours) is for making a deposit. They could install these in grocery stores and shopping malls and it’d be practically like having a 24 hour branch everywhere without any of the expense for them. Although it’s probably not the best for outdoor locations, but you’re pretty safe in those ATM vestibules which requires a card to enter, no?
Hi Ryan, and thanks a lot for stopping by.
I have been in Bank of America a few times recently, and every time I was in there, I made a point to ask the person I was working with about these ATMs. They all said that the machines are in fact part of a test, and nobody at the local levels really knows what is the status on this trial.
I have mixed feelings about it, I thought the machines were awesome, the first couple times I used them. They worked, it was cool and I think it might even have been faster. But then I found the one closest to me broken. It would not take any cash. Then the next one I found, about 4 miles away also was out of service. So far, all of these machines in my area are not working properly. While I was in two different branches, I asked them about it and they said that they didn’t know about the broken machines and that the best bet was to call customer service and report them.
If the machines were working, I would totally be in favor of them, but you can’t put stuff like this on a test with the customers and let the machines go out of service for months at a time.
I only need branches to do special transactions or other business, like loans or mortgages; normally I do my deposits at the atm. But I know that the banks will keep branches open even if we had 24×7 access like you mention. After all, they have tons of products to sell you besides a checking and savings account.
I’d love to see one of the high-interest online banks like ING Direct or Citibank (which has next to zero branches unless you live in CA, TX, or NY) roll these out. Maybe if struck up a contract to installed one in every Safeway, Target, Walgreens, they could have a “tangible/real world” nationwide presence without really having to open any branches. An online bank you can actually walk up to and deposit cash in. I suppose you could say the check feature is kind of a novelty compared to envelope deposits. But most people I know squirm at the thought of stuffing actual cash in an envelope and in to an ATM. Kind of the idea of stuffing cash in to a black hole, where somebody else you don’t know and can’t see counts it at some remote facility, trusting that it wont be eaten or lost. The cash being counted instantly and being printed on your receipt instead of just “here’s what you keyed in” is reassuring.
well, regardless of all the positive aspects my friends have told me about the new ATMs, I missed the old ugly grey ATMs they used to have. However, I’m fortunate that I haven’t had to deal with depositting checks or cash. I have a direct deposit checks from my place of work, and my husband will have to deposit his own paychecks….(sorry, hon!). I noticed, BoA with new ATMs also have staff with new, arrogant attitude. But, whatever, maybe it was a bad day for everyone. I’m happy to hear some of us like the new machine. Well, you can’t make everyone happy.
TTYL, Oscar !
Well These machines were awesome until last night. I deposited $340 cash at first it
would not capture one $20 bill so the little door opened and i fixed the $20 bill and it was still giving me problems, so the machine asked me to put the total amount of the money dumb me put $20 thinking that it was asking me about the problem money that it could not capture. So I get my receipt back and there was only $20 deposited and the rest gone. Yeah I know my fault but the way Bank of America is taking care of this issue is soooo inconvenience. They have to investigate, in the meantime im out of my money but they did say that within 10 days they will give me a credit for that until they investigate. I’m thinking, what is there to investigate? go to the machine count up all the money and done right?
This is for gUS. I had a very similar thing happen–happily, with a smaller amount of money, but still. Long story short, I’d put in $60 and got credited for $8.
Fortunately, the branch was open, so I went in and talked to a very helpful, very patient employee about it. She explained that depending on the machine, they count the money either every day or every week, and if there is more cash than is accounted for by the receipts, they can usually figure out which transaction it was part of. Then she went ahead and called someone and filed a claim on my behalf, to make sure I got credited with all my cash, and they sorted it out pretty quickly.
I guess they can’t “go to the machine and count up all the money” outside of the regularly-scheduled times that’s supposed to happen. Which could be as far apart as a week, which seems really stupid to me, and I bet to you too.
I’m still thinking about switching banks. The new machines so do not work with the way I get paid. But the online banking is the best of the banks I’ve tried. Very frustrated right now. I’d hoped to get used to the new machines, but I haven’t.
My wife and I have a cash business and must deposit cash on a regular basis. No matter how we try to insert the cash into the machine, we cannot get these stupid ATMS to take our cash correctly. Cash that goes in flat and neat comes out crumpled and stuck. Money gets miscounted. In 20 years of using ATMs I never had an issue. We have now lost cash 3 times in the last year, and had to fight to get it back each time (which we did). That is assuming the stupid machine is even accepting cash on the day you stop by. WTF?
The last cash loss was the final straw. I switched to WAMU. The concept of these machines is great, but the actual execution is terrible, and your ability to cover your ass is negligible. If you use these enough you will lose cash in them.
If you’re REALLY clever, you can open an account at another bank, do your deposits in their ATMs, transfer the balance online, and still use B of As great online bill pay. As for me, I opted for the F U B of A approach.
I personally like not being able to deposit my IRS check. It’s much more convenient for me to go to the bank during my business hours and wait in-line to make a deposit. Thank you B of A.
On a side note: Do you wonder how B of A can make a ATM that scans your check and then prints an image of your check on a thermal printer for your receipt, BUT when you vote on an electronic voting machine, you can’t even get a simple receipt showing whom you voter for, let alone a scanned copy of your ballot.
@Jon, thanks for stopping by. That’s an interesting question about the voting machines. I guess, it could be a cost issue? If you add up all of those machines, the cost is tremendous. Add a printer to each one and surely the cost rises at least 20% more, probably more like 50% since its a government project. Keep in mind, the banks make money so they can up the ante on their services, since they are ultimately for profit right? The voting stuff has not profitability so I think this may be the main reason for the lack of this service on @ the voting booth.
And personally, I really wouldn’t care to see what/who I voted for since I really don’t think it makes a peanut’s worth of difference, at the end.
Wells Fargo has just moved to these new ATMs.
They such as well for all the reasons listed above.
What used to take 1 to 2 minutes to deposit our business’s checks for the day now take multiple attempts and closer to 10 minutes at the ATM.
As an added bonus, it often repeated rejects checks and mis-calculates the totals (i.e. scans one or more the check incorrectly.)
What great progress.
My way to get back at them is to open a customer service complaint for each mis-scanned batch. I’m sure eventually they’ll get the message that the time it takes for five or six people to handle the complaint and fix the error is more cost than the ’savings’ of not having to have somebody open the envelops in the first place.
Either these machines need to get way more accurate and way, way faster at the scanning process or they need to be removed.