By CLIFF EDWARDS
.c The Associated Press
 
CHICAGO (Aug. 3) - Consumers are finally rejecting the idea that they should
pay for the convenience of getting their own money.

People are doing just about anything to avoid pesky ATM surcharges, according
to a new survey. They're using debit cards to make cash-less purchases. When
they go to the grocery store, they get extra cash back with their change.
When they do use an ATM, they're making sure it's at a branch of their own
bank.

``Cash station surcharges have become a double-edged sword for ATM
networks,'' said David Gosnell, senior editor for Bank Network News, which
conducted the survey. ``There's a general consensus that surcharges have
dampened ATM use and shifted consumer thinking toward using debit cards, but
the industry has been slow to respond because of the profits attained from
them,'' Gosnell said Tuesday.

The Chicago-based trade magazine found that monthly ATM transactions in March
1999 fell to 907.4 million, down 2.4 percent from the 930 million
transactions recorded in June 1998.

At the same time, debit card point-of-sale transactions jumped 35 percent,
according to the survey of the top 10 ATM networks, including Cash Station,
Star and Interlink. Debit cards, which often look just like credit cards,
work with a bank account, making a deduction for every purchase.

Many banks routinely impose ATM charges when a non-customer steps up to the
keypad. The banks argue these fees are necessary because banks must pay each
other to reconcile accounts. They must also pay thousands of dollars on
annual upkeep of the machines. Some banks also charge their own customers
when they use another bank's machine, resulting in double charges.

Overall, roughly 66 percent of the nation's 227,000 ATMs in 1998 had
surcharges averaging $1.22 each time a non-customer used them, up from 56
percent a year earlier, according to Speer & Associates, an Atlanta
consulting firm to the banking industry. Fees can rocket to $5 in such places
are bars and rural areas.

State and federal lawmakers have attempted to limit the charges but have had
little success. Now it appears customers are taking matters into their own
hands.

``Only in a real pinch do I pay a $1 service fee,'' said business consultant
Tom Nolan of Mokena, Ill., who uses ATMs only at his banks or uses credit
cards to receive frequent flier miles. ``I don't like giving away money.''

Retailers, led by supermarkets and grocers, have taken advantage of that
dissatisfaction by offering consumers the opportunity to use debit cards -
not only to make purchases but to get cash back, according Speer.

Debit cards are used widely in Europe and Canada but have been slow to catch
on in the United States.

Alan Metcalfe, a Philadelphia architect, says he uses that option more often
nowadays by stopping into supermarkets or drug stores.

``It's interesting, though, how back in 1979, the banks presented ATM service
free of charge,'' said Metcalfe, eyeing an array of such machines. ``We were
ignorant consumers not to think they wouldn't start replacing tellers and
charging us for this.''

``I worked my whole life and (made) my own money - I can't get it out of the
bank without paying,'' said a frustrated Grace Carter, a 72-year-old retired
Philadelphia Board of Education member.

As ATM use has leveled off because of the fees, so have the profits from ATM
networks, according to Bank One Corp., the nation's fifth-largest bank.

The fees have also shifted traditional American thinking away from paying for
items first with cash, then by check, credit cards and then debit cards, the
bank said.

Bank One, based in Chicago, hedges its bets by being the largest issuer of
debit cards and owning the second-largest ATM network nationwide.