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player ready...It’s brilliant, really, the ATM. We insert a plastic card and tap in some numbers, and out comes our money in crisp green bills — no matter what time it is, no matter where we are.
There’s a price to pay for that convenience. According to bankrate.com’s latest Checking Account Pricing Study, released twice a year, the average ATM fee is now $1.64 — and rising.
If you use an ATM that doesn’t belong to your bank, you sometimes pay two fees: a charge from the ATM’s owner and a surcharge from your own bank.
It takes some planning, but there are ways to avoid — or at least reduce — those fees. Here are five tactics.
1. Get cash back
Instead of going to an ATM, get cash back when you make a purchase. Even if you just buy gum, you can request cash back at most grocery and convenience stores.
2. Plan ahead when traveling
Spending the summer in Italy? Or even Italy, Texas, where there’s no Wachovia branch? Think ahead. Call your bank, explain the situation and ask to have the ATM fees suspended or refunded while you’re out of town; you just might get lucky. Banks will make exceptions sometimes; it’s worth a call to find out.
3. Go with a (mostly)fee-free bank
It may be impossible to find a bank that protects you from all ATM fees. But you can find one that helps you out with “some” of them. Banks do offer some breaks, but you have to read the fine print. Washington Mutual, for instance, promises free ATM use — but if you go to a non-WaMu ATM, you still have to pay the other bank’s charge. One solution: Switch to an online-only bank — it will have no official bank ATMs, so it’ll often reimburse you for those “foreign ATM” fees. (Try netbank.com or bankus.etrade.com — E-Trade’s Max-Rate checking account, for instance, will refund an unlimited number of fees from other ATMs.)
4. Know — and avoid — the highest-fee ATMs
Where convenience is a priority (such as at the airport), fees are usually sky-high, and sometimes double. Keep that in mind and plan ahead.
5. Put yourself on an ATM schedule
Find a bank that doesn’t charge you to use its ATMs, and then swing by to withdraw money, say, every Monday morning on the way to work. You’ll have cash when you need it, and you’ll seldom find yourself making a quick stop at the nearest ATM. The key, however: Not blowing all your cash on the first day.