Whenever I see local businesses have an ATM, whether it’s the liquor store or the nail salon, I ask myself how they have an ATM. I thought they would put their own money into it, but then how would they profit? Do they get the money from somewhere else (government)? How do they put more money in it, and how are they monitored to make sure the business isn’t stealing from the ATM?
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Merchants do not put their own money in ATMs. They get a commission each time someone uses the machine. If you notice the fees in their machines are higher than the fees your bank charges. The merchant gets a piece of that difference.
The store doesn’t own or operate the ATM. A private company pays them a small fee for the space. Most small businesses like having an ATM around because cash is king. The company that owns the ATMs keeps part of the fee you pay to get your cash. Most ATMs have a camera [that little mirror] to record who is using it.
TL;DR: They would make money because there’s an additional fee for using an ATM; the person who supplied the money for the ATM gets reimbursed for the removed money and gets a cut of the additional fee.
~~ATMs are owned and supplied by the bank.~~ S~~everal banks have ATM networks and share them with others for an additional fee.~~ ~~I would expect that small businesses are paid some amount for the ATM to be there, or it’s just expected that allowing your customers access to cash on premises is better than making them leave.~~
~~The business would not be putting their own money into the machines.~~
Correction: There’s actually a middleman industry of buying and placing ATMs. Supposedly if you can get into it, it’s a source of passive income; you buy the machine, find a venue and an ATM processor, then split the fees between all three. It’s the owner who’s usually responsible for supplying the money, so it could be the business itself if it owns the ATM. You would want to do this because it would maximize your cut as well as letting your customers get cash instead of going somewhere else to do so and maybe not coming back.
So the owner would be putting the money in; if the owner is the venue, taking money from it would be stealing from themselves. They would still make money because if a customer took $60 out, the ATM processor would repay them that $60 and a portion of the additional fee that was charged the customer. If the owner is not the venue, then it’s the owner’s money, and the owner is given that $60 and the fee is split between the owner and the venue. Generally ATMs are hard to bust and have video, GPS and other guards to prevent theft; if the venue isn’t the owner, they wouldn’t have a key to it.
It is possible to personally own an atm. You would put your own money into it and be reimbursed from the accounts of people that make withdrawals. The profit is the fees.
The same with any ATM. They are owned and audited/ inspected by the bank. Every transaction is recorded so if the numbers don’t match up they would know something is wrong .
I own a small business with an ATM. The ATM is owned by a 3rd party service provider.
We **DO** put our own money into the ATM.
Customer withdraws money, pays a fee.
The 3rd party provider puts money into a dedicated bank account of mine.
I take money out of that account and put it back in the atm.
Once a month I get a commission check (1/2 the atm fees) that goes into my operating account.
Generally it’s around $150/month that we bring in on commissions.
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It can work multiple way. In one case, the company I worked for owned the machines and handled everything and kept a percentage of the ATM fees. In another case, the company just allowed someone else business to install the ATM and in return was paid a monthly lease. The ATM’s owners handled everything and kept all of the fees.
Most ATMs, even ones in businesses not directly tied to a bank are still typically owned by a service who fill them via crews who drive armored trucks on route to fill them. They stores make money from service fees to use the ATM and by increasing sales when customers can take out cash they need to pay.
I had one in my business many years ago. It was owned by a third party. I had to load it with cash. Every month I would get a transfer for the cash I put in and my share of the fees.
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