Dow Jones
CHICAGO - Customers of WingspanBank.com, the Internet-only unit of Bank One Corp., found last week that Cash Station automated teller machines in the Chicago area would not accept their cards.
The problem started Tuesday and ended Friday. The rejections were caused by network conversions, a company spokeswoman said.
Normally, Wingspan cards can be used for free at approximately 1,000 Chicago-area machines in the Cash Station network, a subsidiary of Concord EFS Inc. of Memphis, as well as at Bank One's 4,000 ATMs nationwide.
The cards can also be used on other networks, which often charge a transaction fee. Wingspan, which has 175,000 customer accounts, normally reimburses customers as much as $5 a month for those fees, but it will repay any charges incurred because of the Cash Station problem, the spokeswoman said.
"My main frustration is just that they haven't told me about" the issue, said Doug MacDonald, a Wingspan customer whose card was rejected by several ATMs. "I uncovered it at a time when it was the least appropriate for me to uncover it, which was when I needed money."
Bank One, the nation's fifth-largest bank, launched Wingspan last year, when then-chief executive John B. McCoy decided that a separate online bank could ward off growing competition from other financial Internet sites.
The Chicago banking company had considered selling Wingspan, but new CEO Jamie Dimon said it plans to maintain the unit as a separate brand, while integrating its systems with the Bank One-branded service.
