Of Mail and ATMs

  It was just about dinnertime on a fine early-July evening when I opened the front door to check the mailbox. Pretty much a routine haul-a bill, some third-class marketing pitches for this or that, and credit card solicitations.
  In fact, there were four card mailings-a one-day personal best for our household. Before I could go inside to open to the precious stuff, I noticed my neighbor, Jan, trimming her bushes.
  "Hey, Jan," I said. "We just got four credit card solicitations!"
  "Yeah, I get the stuff all the time, too," she said, her face taking on a slight frown. "I just mail it back. I can't stand that #!*% (mild expletive that starts with 'c')."
  Jan explained that she simply puts all the contents of the solicitation, unsigned, into the postage-paid reply envelope and drops it in the mail. In that way, she not only registers her displeasure, but also transfers the cost of her protest to the issuer.
  Card issuers mailed some 4.3 billion solicitations last year, but garnered an average response rate of less than 1%, according to Chicago-based Synovate's Mail Monitor. I wonder how many other consumers besides Jan return their card mail in protest of what they perceive as junk mail. As usual, I'm writing this column at the last minute before deadline, so I don't have any answers. But my neighbor's actions have precipitated a CCM mini-investigation, the results of which I'll pass on in the near future.
  While consumers perceive there's a surplus of credit card mailings, banks and independent sales organizations in the debit business increasingly believe there is a surplus of automated teller machines. As our cover story on page 32 notes, transactions per ATM are declining because deployments have far outpaced usage growth.
  Worse, the revenues deployers hoped for are falling short of expectations because more and more consumers are avoiding ATMs that surcharge non-customers. Now some ATM deployers are getting out of the business, and the survivors are looking for creative ways to increase volumes. Which brings up the question: Certainly ATM ISOs are in the business for the money, but should ATMs be a profit center for financial institutions? Wasn't the original premise of the ATM some 30-plus years ago to increase customer convenience while somewhat reducing labor expenses?
  There are no flashing signs about what paths deployers should take in the future. That's quite a contrast with the world of credit card marketing, where national issuers still are committed to direct mail despite the risk of raising consumer ire. Mail works, and in fact may be more important than ever with telemarketing under the gun. But for deployers, the new questions being raised about the role of ATMs could produce many different yet viable answers.