On Jan 9, 12:09*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
Here, smaller branches may have only a single ATM, and there are ones
not physically attached to a bank (for instance in retail locations),
but many city bank branches have lobbies, accessible after-hours with
the ATM card, with several ATMs.

It may just be me or my banks, but my experience in the UK is that lobbies
are being steadily phased out by banks, sometimes by refurbishment,
sometimes by simply fully locking the door overnight. Several of my banks
are also making it almost impossible to deposit out of hours, whether by
removing lobbies, sealing letter boxes and/or withdrawing the ability to
deposit cheques & notes through ATMs.

For withdrawing cash there's usually enough open air machines, but every so
often the banking industry threatens to remove the LINK agreement that
allows people to use different banks' ATMs without charge and intoduce fees,
sometimes with the appalling title of "disloyalty fees". This is especially
annoying if you live in a suburb where your own bank hasn't bothered to
establish a small branch because there are large branches in neighbouring
suburbs to handle business and, crucially, enough branches from other banks
plus standalone ATMs that customers needing instant access to cash are
currently served well enough without fees.

That all sounds utterly bizarre. Have your designers never heard of
electronic locks that will admit someone who has an ATM card to swipe?

Our banks encourage the use of ATMs so they can fire more and more
(low-paid anyway) tellers.

Some banks even pick up the fees charged to ATM-users who don't have
an account at the bank it belongs to.