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ATM fees reach 26-year high with charges topping $5 in some cities
Banks are charging record amounts for noncustomers getting cash at ATMs, according to a new survey released this week by personal finance website Bankrate.
The average out-of-network fee climbed to $4.77 this year, a 4-cent increase from 2023. It’s the highest average total fee since Bankrate started tracking fees in 1998.
“If you make an out-of-network ATM withdrawal, expect to pay, and pay more than ever before,” Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride said in a statement. “Fees have increased again and you’ll typically pay two fees — one to the ATM owner and another to your own bank.”
On average, your bank will charge $1.58 for using an out-of-network ATM. The owner of the out-of-network ATM will charge, on average, an additional $3.19, for a combined average fee of $4.77.
Bankrate advises only using ATMs in your bank’s network for withdrawals to avoid fees when getting cash. Consumers can also ask for cash back when using a debit card for a purchase. Bankrate says that while there’s usually no fee for doing this, the maximum withdrawal limits are often lower than those imposed by ATMs.
The average out-of-network ATM fee in some American cities can come in much higher than the fee in others. Depending on where you live, you may be spending more than $5 to access cash. The average ATM fee is highest in Atlanta, where people can pay $5.33 to withdraw cash at an out-of-network machine, according to Bankrate’s survey. The average withdrawal fee also topped $5 in San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit and Cleveland.
Boston has the most inexpensive withdrawal fee of the 25 metropolitan areas Bankrate surveyed, with an average out-of-network fee of $4.16.
To make matters even worse, consumers are also getting socked with higher overdraft fees, which climbed to an average of $27.08 in 2024 after declining for two straight years, Bankrate found.
The Bankrate survey examined 10 banks and thrifts in 25 large markets.
ATM fees may be on the rise, in part, because fewer Americans are withdrawing cash. Americans made 6 billion ATM cash withdrawals in 2009, but that had dropped to 5.8 billion by 2015 and 3.7 billion in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve.
McBride in 2018 told MoneyWatch that fees go up each year because “no one is worried about alienating noncustomers.”
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
