Can you imagine a time when you couldn’t just go to almost any bank, convenience store, or even your favorite watering hole 24-hours a day and just withdraw some extra cash - albeit for a surcharge, sometimes boarding on the ridiculous.

 

According to a Bankrate.com study in 2022, out-of-network ATM fees increased by 1.5% over the past year to an average of $4.66 per transaction. Back in 1998, the average total ATM fee was $1.97, when Bankrate first began tracking this data.

 

Surprisingly, New York City is actually not in the top five for ATM fees. We clock in at around number eight on the list, according to Bankrate. Number one is Atlanta followed by Detroit.

 

Banks make billions of dollars every year on ATM fees so don’t expect them to go away anytime soon.

 

But, there was a time when there was just one automated teller machine where you could get money on-the-go. That first ATM was located in Rockville Centre, right here on Long Island.

 

On September 2, 1969, Chemical Bank of Rockville Centre  unveiled their automated teller machine, the first. That’s right, less than two months after the first men landed on the moon and a few weeks after Woodstock, Americans installed the first ATM. What a year to be alive!

 

We have since then sometimes referred to this as a “cash machine,” “money machine,” “cash dispenser” or the redundant term “ATM machine.”

Fun fact: This use of a term - like a PIN number or ATM machine  - is called RAS Syndrome, a term that in itself is a RAS which stands for redundant acronym syndrome. (My head hurts!)

 

Anyway, Don Wetzel holds the patent for the ATM, originally called Docuteller machine, named for the company he worked for, Docutel.

 

One question Wetzel sought to answer before developing the machine was “If we built this machine and the banks were interested in buying it, would the banks' customers use it?”

 

We all know the answer to that question.

 

As he recalled in an interview the machine that was installed at Chemical bank on Long Island didn’t really have any glitches.

 

“The machine was installed at a Long Island branch of Chemical Bank in September of '69, and it worked well,” he said. “We didn't have any major problems. A few minor ones, but that was OK.”