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Denominations of currency from ATMs

Denominations of currency from ATMs

Old Sep 18, 2008, 8:51 am
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tjl
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Denominations of currency from ATMs

Is it only in the US where most ATMs give only a single denomination (typically $20, though I have seen $5)? In other countries where I have gotten currency from ATMs, the ATM dispensed various denominations in a single withdrawl.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 9:13 am
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I honestly do not believe this is true..... while most ATMs in the US do not dispense bills larger than $20s and no $1, I have gotten $5, $10 and $20 from ATMs.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 10:50 am
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don't know about now where most atm's give $20's ('cept those in las ) but i am <sadly> old enough to remember when atm's first appeared and would dispense $5 & $10 dollar bills (but then again, that was also back when gas was below a $1.00 a gallon....)
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 11:37 am
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I usually receive $20's but often $10's are available, rarely $5. Las Vegas does offer $100's but that's the only place I've ever received $100 bills from an ATM.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 1:12 pm
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Re:

In my experience, $20s are universally available, $10s are available maybe half the time. The only way to get a $10 bill is to select a withdrawal amount not divisible by 20. Even then, it's a crapshoot what you get. Sometimes, withdrawing $150 will give you 5 $20s and 5 $10s, but more often you get 7 $20 and a single $10 bill.

I'm 44 years old and have never seen a $5 bill from an ATM.

Once in Hawaii, I withdrew $200 and got 4 $50 bills. (????) Those were a pain in the rear to get people to accept. I felt sorry for the Japanese tourists who got those and didn't realize why their money was no good at the ice cream stand.

I've only seen $100 bills in Vegas and at the machines in 7-Eleven that can cash government and payroll checks.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 1:54 pm
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Originally Posted by Gregory Nelson
I'm 44 years old and have never seen a $5 bill from an ATM.
The ATM in the student centre in college used to dispense $5 bills back int he early 1990's Haven't seen it since.

I usually see $20's and occasional $10.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 2:25 pm
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I just took out money this weekend and was surprised to see a mix of tens and 20's.

When I was working in a bank, a group of efficiency experts came through and one of their suggestions was to use all the drawers of the ATM and put 50's in one of them. Our policy was all get 20's. Period.

Their reasoning was you would not have to refill it as much. If somebody wanted $100, it would give them 2 x 50 instead. Two bills instead of five.

Our reasoning was no, because we counted the money in the ATM every day anyway, so that wasn't an issue, and we referred them to the many instances where somebody put a tray of $50's where a tray of $20's should be, so when somebody asked for $100 they got 5 x 50 instead.

And if one tray jammed (which happens all the time) the machine could still dispense normally, not having to say, sorry, $40 is not a valid amount.

All that being said, there are banks that do trays of $5, $10, $20's $50's and I know of one that does $100's. Not sure it it's still this way or not, but at Broadway Pizza, think it was 28th and Broadway, they had two ATM's next to each other. One did $20's the other did $50's. Our office was right around the corner, I got slices there several times a week. The $20 machine was always empty, they couldn't get the people there often enough to keep it stocked. The $50 machine nobody wanted to use. They hated it when you stopped at the machine, got a $50, then walked in and bought a slice for $3 with it. Well then, fix the other machine, OK?

It's just much easier for the bank to track if all the trays are the same. There's way too many things that can go wrong if you load each tray with a different value bill. Some banks are obviously willing to deal with those issues, but for the most part, banks just order "ATM quality" 20's and that's that.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 10:50 pm
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I really don't like going to a country like the UAE, and taking out 2000AED (nearly 600USD) and only getting 2, or sometimes 4 notes. It makes me feel horribly poor.

And disappears unbelievably fast too.
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Old Sep 18, 2008, 11:20 pm
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Loading different denominations into an ATM in the US is a matter of programming as the bills are the same size, no matter the denomination. Most ATM have 4-6 cassettes in which the bills are loaded; you just program the machine to know what denominations are in the cassettes.

At a certain point, when a cassette is low, it needs to be replenished. This is normally done with two custodians (dual control) and most banks do not have extra FTE do be doing this numerous times during the day. It makes it much easier and efficient to stock the same denomination in all cassettes and let the all the cassettes run low before replenishing, rather than having to service the machine every time it runs out of a denomination.

That being said, a number of banks do have multi denominational ATM machnes out there; some even have coin dispensers as well.

For those with OMNI access, please see: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=704539
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 4:09 am
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In Poland I saw an ATM with not only different notes but also different currencies. Had the option of withdrawing cash in local currency or Euros.
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 5:28 am
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Citibank ATMs only give out $20 and $10 bills.
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 5:39 am
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Last time I was in Munich I realized I only had a 50 Euro note left and a little change so I went to the Deutsches Bank ATM in Marienplatz and withdrew 200 Euros. Received 4 50 Euro notes. Fortunately it had just turned 11 in the morning so I was "forced" to go to the Hofbrauhaus to use one of them to get some smaller notes.
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 5:56 am
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Originally Posted by onlyairfare
Las Vegas does offer [insert noun] but that's the only place I've ever received [same noun] from a [insert noun].
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 6:34 am
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Originally Posted by cordelli
It's just much easier for the bank to track if all the trays are the same. There's way too many things that can go wrong if you load each tray with a different value bill. Some banks are obviously willing to deal with those issues, but for the most part, banks just order "ATM quality" 20's and that's that.
When I worked for a Central California S&L in the mid 1980s, our IBM ATMs held two cash "magazines". We loaded $20s in the first one and $5s into the second one - at first the fives were being taken much more quickly than the $20s (people taking a five to pay for lunch, for instance, back when pauing that amount was much easier to do).

So we re-programmed them to require a $20 minimum withdrawl, at which time the distribution of the currency evened out (if someone wanted $50, the machine would offer the option of two $20s and two $5s, or one $20 and six $5s - it was actually fairly slick for 1985)

I wonder - how many cash magazines (or cartridges or trays) do modern day ATMs have?

Also, did anyone ever use an ATM that dispensed coins? I remember using one at the central "X" position of the midfield terminal at PIT - it was just after the new terminal opened , and I remember withdrawing something like $29.99, just to see how the machine handled it. I haven't seen another coin-dispensing machine since.
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Old Sep 19, 2008, 7:00 am
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Many local cashpoints (ATMs) in Alsace state that they only offer 20€ and 50€ notes, so you have to choose the amount you wish to withdraw so that the machine can use what it is stocked with.
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