Automated Teller Machines are a revolutionary innovation of financial services facilitating cash withdrawals without the inconvenience of a visit to the bank. Introduced as early as 1972, the ATM machine was invented by the company IBM for the United Kingdoms Lloyds Bank. Subsequently all other banks followed suit and
ATM machines are now seen in every nook and corner of streets and shopping malls. In Fact, nowadays these useful machines offer several other services besides cash withdrawal including deposits, credit card advance payments and checking available account balance.
An ATM machine is also called by a variety of names including cash machines and holes in the wall. Each ATM card has a unique identification number. To use the card for any transaction a customer must insert his unique personal identification number or PIN. Due to the growing menace of ATM theft most banks nowadays have a standard security measure where an ATM card gets automatically locked if the incorrect PIN is entered more than three times.
ATM Machine has another very useful feature for travellers. Often while travelling to a foreign country you may need to withdraw cash. However, your account has denominations of a different currency. What do you do then? The cash machine from which you make the withdrawal just converts the money into the local currency at a wholesale rate, thus often providing some of the best exchange rates.
Nowadays nearly every
ATM machines provide the facility of depositing and withdrawing money from machines not belonging to the bank where you have your account. For example, if you have a CitiBank ATM card you could easily use it to withdraw money from an HSBC machine. There is some debate as to the exact number of cash machines currently in use across the world. Indeed, it is difficult to make a precise calculation owing to the rapid spread of these machines every day. However, some studies place the estimate at as high as a staggering 1.8 million.
