If people stopped using ATM's I have a sneaking suspicion they'd find they have a lot more money left over. I stopped using them and low and behold, I started seeing my bank account grow.

Two words: Credit Unions. I used to use a big bank, but the fees for even members were more than i could handle, so i switched and have never looked back. I still get charged when i use a big bank atm, but not by my cu. I'll got out of my way to find a cu atm.

Twenty years ago, almost nobody used debit cards or ATM's. Today, due to massive advertising campaigns, without firing a shot or forcing a soul, Visa and MC have managed to "talk" over half the nation into using debit cards. There is a huge advantage to Visa and MC and and more risk for the consumer, but consumers continue to use debit cards anyway. It's hard to feel sorry for a nation that is filled with so many poorly educated and gullible people. After all, look at who we elect to represent us.

Anyone with an ounce of sense woul learn to control their spending urges and get enough cash every week or every month to spend without using an ATM or debit card. At least, while we still have the chance, before chip implants make cash, credit and debit cards obsolete.

I seem to remember several years ago my bank started charging 'tellers' fees. Each time you saw a teller in person, they charged you a fee. The bank was trying to encourage people to use their ATM, it was cheaper for the bank.

My credit union, Western FCU, not only doesn't charge me for using another bank's ATM, they also refund me money charged by other banks (up to a certain amount, like $1.00 or $1.50). I believe Wescom and Keypoint may do the same.

Another credit union, Orange County Teacher's FCU, charges money if I use another bank's ATM. So be careful which credit union you go to.

I know several banks charge "Teller Fees" of up to $5.00. It was a way to get you out of the teller line and into the ATM line.

I, personally do not use another banks ATM. If I am in an area where my bank doesn't have an ATM, i go into a supermarket and buy a pack of gum or a candybar and use their atm. Most of them will let you pull up to $40.00 cash back. They do not charge you anything. One of the only free lunches left in this world.

ATMs charge a per-use fee. Debit cards (at least, ones I use) do not. And as a bonus there's no massive interest either. You have the money. You swipe the card. The money goes away. It's simple.

Otherwise, use cash.

Some of us are old enough to remember when banks were encouraging ATM use over tellers as a way to reduce their own costs. They began charging teller fees and leaving banking free at the ATM. This allowed them to have far fewer employees at the teller windows and reduced costs dramatically. Now, we're hooked on ATMs and they have found that they can even charge for their tellerbots. What ever happened to keeping cash under one's mattress?

Completely outrageous. People talk about criminals, but they never mention the ones that steal the most: Banks.

I knew this was coming. The credit card companies are doing the same thing to merchants. We've seen the unfair interchange fee increase 117 percent in the last six years.

Unless I get a piece of chocolate out of the BofA's ATM machines, I plan to avoid at all costs.

ChaseBank is charging a 0.5% (!!) "foreign transaction fee" on purchases in Europe, so the more you spend the more you pay. BofA charged a $5.00 "foreign currency fee" for ATM's, but GoldOne Credit Union only charged $1.00. That's what it was last month, anyway.

The banks have to cover all their bad loans somehow.

People gripe that they should never have to pay a fee to get to their "own money". When did the money that is sitting in all the ATM machines across the country become theirs? Didn't someone else put THEIR money in that ATM, pay for that machine with THEIR money, pay a couple hundred bucks to an armored car company out of THEIR money, and pay for the processing fees and insurance costs out of THEIR money?

But suddenly when you are short on cash the money in the nearest ATM suddenly becomes YOUR money, as if the rest of society is supposed to follow you around with a box of money for free just in case you forgot to bring YOUR money with you.

If you want to have YOUR money available for no charge whenever you want it, just stuff it in your mattress and drag it around with you so you have it when you need it. Maybe then you will be willing to pay a couple bucks for someone else to have a box full of cash sitting their just waiting for you when you need some.

Maybe when you get tired of dragging a mattress full of cash around you will realize that someone else paid a lot of THEIR money to provide you with an optional convenience. Quit whining about pennies... cash on demand wherever you happen yo be partying and run low, is not an entitlement program.