The $5 ATM Fee: Coming Soon to a Bank Near You?

It's been well-documented that banks are hiking fees for users -- and blaming government regulations for "making" them do it -- for the past several months. But the news that Chase launched a pilot program that charges non-Chase customers a $5 ATM fee to use Chase machines in Illinois has even cynics raising their eyebrows. According to this article, the $5 ATM fee is one of many ways banks are trying to make up lost revenue they can no longer rake in on automatic overdraft charges or "anytime, any reason" credit card rate hikes.

Customers aren't generally charged for withdrawing money at their own bank's ATM -- not yet, anyway. But a bank customer is generally dinged twice if they make a withdrawal at an out-of-network machine. The owner of the machine charges the customer's bank a fee, which most (but not all) banks pass along to their customers with a little extra thrown in. On top of this, the owner of the machine also collects a separate fee form the customer for using the machine. In total, ATM fees let banks pull in $7.1 billion last year, and it's clear they want this number to increase.