What are banks' profit margin on ATM transactions.

I’ve been wondering if anyone knows precisely how much banks make on ATM transaction fees. They charge anywhere from a $1 to $2.50 for transactions that I’m guessing only cost them pennies, but I don’t know for sure. Does anyone know the answer?

Most banks for most accounts charge absolutely nothing.

I believe their profit margin on ATMs is not from direct fees, but from the savings they get by not having to have employees physically be present and work with you.

I have a bank that I don’t use often because they aren’t local but they reimburse me up to $2.00 for the atm fee up to 10 times a month. If I didn’t have to mail my checks in and had direct deposit that would be a good deal. I wonder how they can afford to do that.

I used to work for a banking consulting firm, and the amount varies based on location. I think this answers the question better than I could and provides some starting numbers:

Therefore, it could cost anywhere from 17 to 50 cents per transaction.

I know the guy in the link is the Executive Director of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association, but I couldn’t find anyone disputing the numbers from the Consumers Bankers Association study that he cites. Personally, fifty cents is actually higher than any numbers I saw from banks, but I only consulted for small banks with on-premesis ATMs.

Obviously this isn’t the whole story, the link also talks about the interchange fee but doesn’t go into great detail about the back end network. And like muttrox said, bank tellers themselves are much more expensive. (1 to 3 dollars according to some of the banks we consulted for).

The sales literature for at least one ATM I’ve looked at used $1/ATM transaction as a basis point for their comparison with the cost of teller withdrawals, which the ATM vendor asserted cost an average of $2.50.
Of course if you add in EVERY COST of maintaining the bank branch teller operation versus EVERY COST of maintaining an ATM, you could come up with a million different answers based on off-premises, on-premises, crime, overhead, rent, etc.
I suggest listening to Emerald Hawk’s numbers, though, as I tend not to trust sales literature further than I can throw the fat, lying bastards who hand it to me.

Well, banks make money from investing your money in things, not from the fees you pay, right?

I heard a stat somewhere that said that banks customers with a balance regularly under something like $800 were making a loss for the bank, assuming they did the regular few complaints a year, 15 ATM and 2 OTC transactions a month (and so on).


If the bank does business the old-fashion way (which is nice!). It seems the new trend from many banks to profit from fees nowadays.