Bank Pays Customers to Use Others' ATMs

One community bank in Missouri is engaging in an interesting turnabout: paying its customers to use other banks' automated teller machines.

To compete more effectively with larger banks in the same market, $185 million-asset Citizens National Bank decided last year to allow its customers to use - at no charge - any of the 1,287 ATMs in the greater St. Louis area, or any of the 109,000 ATMs affiliated with the BankMate or Cirrus network.