In Toronto, ATMs dispense movie tickets; in Lake Tahoe, ski-lift passes and in Hawaii, airline tickets. Welfare benefits, stamps, phone cards–all are available at ATMs. ““It’s going to let you do things that you normally stand in line to do,’’ says Thomas Swidarski, senior director of worldwide marketing for Diebold, one of the largest ATM manufacturers. Many of these services are still being tested, but Swidarski predicts they’ll be widespread in the next decade. If he’s right, paying bills and filing taxes are only some of the things we can expect to do at ATMs in the next millennium.
How will the machines handle purchases of opera tickets and food stamps, not to mention juggle millions of bank accounts? The Internet, of course. When you request a withdrawal, the ATM calls the bank’s central system, gets authorization and, in turn, dispenses money. Web-based software would work in much the same way. ““To sell airline tickets, a bank would partner with an airline, and instead of browsing you would be directed to that Web site so you could do your purchasing right there,’’ says John Scheinman, senior editor at EFT Report, an industry newsletter. Once the ATM received authorization, it would process your order.
Integrating the Internet with ATM software will let consumers take advantage of dozens of e-commerce applications. The only difference between buying online and at the ATM is time. The machine will spit out a train ticket instantly, along with your cash. No logging on, no risk of losing it in the mail. While you’re waiting, you might watch a video ad for, say, an art exhibit at a local museum, or a movie. If you’re an investor, you could read stock quotes and make some trades, all in the amount of time it takes for your banking transaction to be processed.
To deliver the goods, ATMs need high-quality color monitors, a printer that can process both receipts and tickets, and an upgraded PC and network. For CIBC, a Canadian bank that sold movie tickets from its ATMs in a pilot test, the cost to set up the system–less than $1 million overall–was well worth it. ““The reason we add these other services is to get more people to use our ATMs,’’ says electronic-banking VP Brian Cassidy. And getting people to the bank is crucial. Banks are seeing fewer customers at branches, partly because of independent ATMs. Once CIBC lures customers to its kiosks, and away from the machines in gas stations, it plans to keep them by running ads for CDs, credit cards and other bank services.
Early adopters like CIBC are optimistic, but some banks and ATM networks remain wary of broadening the machines’ use. They’re bucking some persuasive numbers. Initial tests show improved business for companies that partner with ATMs. When trailers for ““The Full Monty’’ were shown at ATMs in San Diego, ticket sales at the local movie theater rose by 5 to 10 percent. And with service fees–Chase and Citibank are the last major banks to institute surcharges–the market for nonbank services at ATMs is ripe. ““The capability to sell simple things like tickets and stamps at ATMs has been there,’’ says Scheinman of EFT Report. ““But surcharges may make it financially worth it for banks now.’’ (Scheinman himself is a skeptic. A self-proclaimed ““cash proponent,’’ he still uses a rotary phone and a record player.)
But Diebold’s Swidarski is unfazed. ““If you had asked someone in 1970 if you could go to Singapore and withdraw money from your U.S. bank account, people would’ve laughed at you,’’ he says. Laugh all you want–but remember your PIN.
