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More financial institutions are offering surcharge-free ATM access to noncustomers, according to Pulse's 2008 Debit Issuer study released today. But the information specifically on the surcharge-free ATMs is mostly anecdotal, and no historical data exist to support Pulse's claim, says the report's author, Tony Hayes, director of Financial Services at New York-based management-consulting firm Oliver Wyman. "We don't have a historical data point," Hayes says. "It's more anecdotal because there is a lot of interest in surcharge-free ATM programs." Oliver Wyman surveyed 62 financial institutions for Pulse, a Houston-based electronic funds transfer network owned by Discover Financial Services. The institutions, which include large banks, community banks and credit unions, own 46,000 ATMs and collectively issue more than 74 million cards, or 28% of the debit cards issued in the U.S., according to Oliver Wyman. Of the participating issuers, 56% have cards that participate in a surcharge-free ATM network. Among credit unions, 84% offer fee-free ATM access to cardholders from other institutions and to its own cardholders that use other issuers' machines, the report says. For example, if a credit union is a member of a surcharge-free ATM network, cardholders are not charged surcharge or foreign ATM fees. Forty-eight percent of financial institutions reimburse their own cardholders for surcharges other institutions may impose for use of their ATMs. ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication, reported that the four largest surcharge-free ATM networks–Allpoint, Credit Union 24, Co-op Network and MoneyPass–are growing for a number of reasons. Community banks and credit unions for example, are joining surcharge-free ATM networks to reduce bank depositors' and credit-union members' fees during challenging economic times, observers say. Surcharge-free ATM networks also help credit unions and community banks that individually may have a small number of ATMs become part of a much larger ATM network.
*Updated 8/19/08
