ATM Machines and Bill Paying

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ATM Machines and Bill PayingWithout a doubt, we are now all living in a digital world, one that’s full of technological advances and conveniences that were not afforded to us years ago. This is great time to be in business as an ATM business owner, and a great time to get into a sound, solid and profitable business.

The income gained from being an ATM business owner is highly flexible, meaning, you can make as much or as little money that you want to make. With multiple machines and/or multiple locations, you will of course make more money. With one or two machines, you will still make a great profit, and you also get to keep your inventory to a reasonably manageable size that’s ideal for the solo business owner.

With the convenience of ATM machines and accessing cash as needed, there is also the added convenience of taking care of other financial duties and responsibilities that most everyone has to deal with, and that’s bill paying.

We do it every day, week or month, and for some people, the task really requires a dedicated amount of time to focus on getting the job done. Whether they are paying those bills online, in person or mailing them in, getting those bills paid are a fact of life that you’ll need to stop and do on a regular basis.

But what if there was an easier way, or perhaps a quicker way to get it done? Maybe on their lunch break, they could easily grab a hotdog and soda from the street vendor AND pay their mortgage all at the same time? That would be pretty cool!

With the ATM machines that also offer bill payment options, it can be done easily and quickly, and as often as necessary. Bill payment kiosks that are a part of the ATM machine and its functions have become and is becoming a popular and sought-after feature for many individuals. Why? Well, mainly because they offer such flexibility and convenience, but also because there are less fees and less paperwork for customers to deal with. With the options to:

1.) withdraw cash

2.) pay bills online

3.) get financial statements from bill vendors and

4.) transfer cash between accounts and bill payors

all of the many benefits of ATM usage turns out to be a very attractive solution for customers. There are many other beneficial uses, but for customers, the main goal is to do as much as they can in an allotted (limited) amount of time, but yet enjoy the maximum amount of benefits as possible. In this day and age, multi-tasking is the fruit of choice, so giving customers multiple options with their ATM visits is ideal.

Although ATM machines and bill-paying is going to be a draw for some customers, for others it may be something that they want to stay far away from, which can likely be due to either a bad experience or not having or knowing enough information on the subject. As an ATM business owner, you can certainly offset their reasons by being as proactive as you can be to make sure the customer’s gravitate to and embrace the idea. Here are some things you can implement to ensure that this happens:

  • Make sure the ATM machine is in a safe location so customers will have confidence when using it, especially if it’s in a high-traffic area.
  • Ensure that the machine has the proper and the most current software available so that customers can find and interact with their bill payors. Make sure also to have as many high-profile bill payors and utility companies that you can so that you attract customers. Of course, this depends on location, so update your list as often as possible.
  • When customers experience issues like statement paper jams or a problem connecting to a vendor, you need to know about it so that you can remedy the problem. Because of this, always make sure that you have contact information visible so that customers can contact you with any machine issues. This includes offline and online contact information.

The only thing for the bill-paying and ATM machine concept to do is to grow. That’s because there are so many benefits and advantages that customers and ATM machine owners will receive. As it continues to grow, ATM owners will continue to enjoy the growing profits while customers receive another service that saves them time and offers them flexibility in one of life’s recurring tasks.

 

 

Successfully Owning an ATM Business

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ATM BusinessBeing your own small business owner affords you a lot of beneficial pluses. Being in a self-owned business with a profitable business model is also the best of all worlds. You get to control and manage your own business, reap handsome profits and you get to enjoy doing something that you like on a daily basis. Deciding on the right type of business is what determines just how successful you become.

Many different types of businesses can certainly be profitable, but the ATM machine business has proven to be immensely profitable because of all that it affords its owners and operators.  We make Successfully Owning an ATM Business easy. We help you get started and show you how ATM Machines work. It is fairly easy to manage the ATM business once it has been properly set up. It does require some dedicated initial time investment in order to get things ramped up, but once your system is in place, all the owner has to do is manage and monitor the machines as efficiently as possible for best results.

The ATM machine business offer owners a lot of benefits that include:

  • business flexibility that moves and changes according to customer needs
  • convenience, with hours they can control and manage
  • minimal time investment, both daily and weekly
  • ability to reap large profits with the right company and machine placements

What’s the Draw?

Convenience is key in today’s fast-paced climate, and customers always tend to gravitate towards businesses that offer them that convenience. Think fast-food drive thru’s, drive-thru car washes or self-pump gas stations; all of these businesses and other types like them allow customers to get in and out quickly, all while enjoying a service that they need. The same thing goes for ATM machine businesses and the customers that frequent them.

Whenever customers need cash fast, they look for the nearest ATM machine to withdraw money. They will not go out of their way to find an ATM machine (usually), and also they’re more inclined to withdraw cash from an available machine even at times when they don’t need it right away. Because of the habits of convenience-craved customers, it’s beneficial for ATM business owners to create opportunities to service customers as much as they can.

Also, since convenience is a crucial benefit for the ATM business owner to provide to his customer, there are also other important areas that should be incorporated into the owner’s business plan in order for it to work. The ATM owners can achieve this with their machines by:

Being Available

Make sure that his machines are in high-traffic areas where people look for, need and want the services of an ATM machine.

Being Accessible

Don’t place the machines in a hard-to-reach area or off the main traffic-ways, whether that’s by car or foot. It needs to be easy to fair to reach for customers in order to attract their business.

Being Convenient

Right along with accessibility, the machines need to also be convenient and a part of the environment in which they’re found. In other words, place ATM machines next to areas where people will actually need them. They will not go out of their way to find a machine, but certainly will use one if it’s available to them.

Competition

It’s okay if there are other ATMs in the area as long as your ATM doesn’t have the highest fee. If your ATM is the most convenient, it will still get used. Avoid placing ATM machines in slow retail stores (where traffic is less than 100 people per day). Try to avoid stores or locations where customers can easily get cash back at the register via a debit card.

Machines Working Properly

ATM business owners should always perform routine and consistent checks on their units to ensure that they’re working properly and in order.  An alert service where the ATM will send you a text message can help avoid down times. Keep them stocked with sufficient cash in ideal increments (we can help determine the best denomination for your location type) and using our online monitoring service you can always check to see if your ATM has enough funds. Routine checks should also include software updating and checking the machine’s hardware and external components for any signs of wear and tear.

Once an ATM machine has established itself as a steady, consistent and reliable machine in an area, people learn to trust it and will give their business to that machine whenever they’re in need of fast cash or banking transactions. In the end, this turns out to be a win-win situation for both the ATM owner and the customer.

There are very few business opportunities where you can invest just a few thousand dollars and ear a few hundred per month in return.  Let us show you how you can earn 10%, 20% or even 60% on your investment by successfully owning an ATM business.

Prepaid Cards with an ATM

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Prepaid Luxury With ATM Cards

Prepaid Luxury With ATM CardsThere is a certain luxury that prepaid card users experience, and that is convenience. There is no guessing on card balances or what is accessible to their accounts through their ATM machines. Since prepaid cards are not like credit cards, and do not behave like revolving accounts, the funds on the card are instantly accessible by the account’s cardholder. Also, the card and any card activity is not information that is reported to any of the credit bureaus because they are not credit card accounts.

Another perk of prepaid cards is that the money is available right away, whether it’s accessed through an ATM machine or by writing out a check for cash. There are no billing statements to deal with and no worries about having balances carry over from one month to the next. The conveniences of having prepaid bankcards extend to personal and business uses, traveling, transferring funds and using them to expedite any transactions where a bankcard is required.

Prepaid Cards Advantages and Disadvantages

Prepaid Cards Advantages and DisadvantagesThere are of course advantages and disadvantages to owning and using a prepaid bankcard. For some, it’s the convenience of having quick access to their money through cash and ATM machines. For others, it may be the flexibility that it offers in paying bills online or performing shopping and purchasing transactions online. However, what one person deems as a plus, someone else may consider a minus. Here are a few reasons and options that people have as their prepaid bankcard cash and spending flexibility:

  1.  The Only Option
  • A prepaid card may be the only viable option for a person who needs to re-establish his financial track record, especially if they’re unable to open up a checking account due to a poor financial history.

In some cases, a prepaid card may the only way that they can get their financial lifestyle back on track as they work to re-build their credit scores and still maintain their financial responsibilities at the same time.

2. Flexibility

  •  A prepaid card gives the user instant cash access through numerous ATM machines and banks, making it an appealing solution for those who prefer NOT to carry around large amounts of cash. With a prepaid card, they can access their funds only when it’s convenient and preferable to them.

3. Instant Load

  •  A prepaid card can also be instantly loaded at many retail locations, like Walmart or pharmacies, like CVS or Walgreen’s. This is convenient for many individuals, especially for those who may have a limited income and need access quicker than going to a bank. There are also many ATM machines located inside some of these retail locations, which make it easier and quite convenient for the customer to shop and make cash withdrawals all at the same location.

There are also some prepaid card distributors who offer larger networks of free ATM providers than do some banks. The benefits of each prepaid card will vary from one distributor to another, but if the network is significant enough in terms of customers, they will generally offer free ATM services to its customers. This is a very important consideration, especially since the typical ATM provider can charge anywhere upward of $300 per year in basic administrative and maintenance fees. In addition, other fees like activation, transaction, bill payment and inactivity fees may also be factored in to the distributor’s fees, so it’s important to read the fine print closely and do a thorough search about the prepaid card distributor before deciding to use/not use their services.

 

Free Money: There Is Such A Thing

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Free MoneyPeople don’t think there’s such a thing as “free money,” but as one ATM distributor in the UK found out, unfortunately, there is. When the ATM cash machine performed a faulty operation, the machine started giving out twice the amount of cash that customers were requesting.

The machine did this for a few hours before the police were summoned to come in and guard the machine from further theft (theft? really?) and to maintain secure premises and keep down any confusion. It seems that the crowd was starting to get a little boisterous and the shoving and pushing to get in the long line was getting out of control. After all, there was “free money” to be had, and everyone wanted a piece of it.

Just to be clear, this was definitely a fluke with the machine, and there is no ATM machine anywhere that purposefully gives out wads of money to its customers. Something faulty had gone wrong with the machine or someone forgot to change the default password to change the denomination settings, and customers were getting twice the amount of money that they were requesting. Word about the free cash quickly spread, and that’s when people started lining up to partake of what was, to some, their dreams coming true!

What’s a Business Owner To Do To Avoid Giving Away Free Money?

Avoid Giving Away Free MoneyThe owner of the cash machine of course had to work quickly to correct the mistake, but according to the bank, they could not and would not hold the customers liable for an error that their machine had made.

This leaves a lot of questions in the mind of any business owner, like:

  • shouldn’t the customers return the money?
  • how can the business owner recoup these “lost funds?”
  • what exactly happened with the machine to cause this error?
  • what can be done to ensure that it does NOT happen again?

There’s no way to be sure to tell what happened, how it could have been avoided and what can be done to avoid it in the future. But as an ATM cash machine owner, there are some things that a businessperson can and should do to lessen the chances of this happening with his cash machines.

1. Have the machines serviced regularly.

Don’t just plop down a cash machine in a spot and leave it there without periodic checks and maintenances. It’s important to do more than ensure the machine has adequate cash, but to also check to make sure that the software is up-to-date, that the hardware is working properly (slots, trays, etc.) and there are no visible signs of wear (rust, corrosion, etc.) that would hinder the machine in any way from working properly.

2. Check on the machines regularly.

Actually going to the machine site on a routine basis is important. Whether this is once weekly or three times a week, anything can happen so it’s imperative to stay ahead of any potential issues by keeping a close eye on things. This means more than just restocking it with cash and paper. Perform routine system checks in addition to visual checks, and make sure to physically handle the machine when you do.

3. Consult Professionals

If anything like what happened with the wayward cash machine were to ever happen to you as an ATM cash machine owner, you’d want to know what your recourses were (if any) and how you’d need to go about taking care of this issue. Consult your business attorney(s) to see if:

a. you have any recourse

b. you can ask for/insist that customers return the money

c. you should file an insurance claim to recover your losses

d. there really isn’t anything you can do, and you should just chalk it all up to unfortunate incidents.

3. Change Default Passwords and Admin Function Codes

When ATM Machines ship from the factory they are all shipped with the same administrative passwords and lock combinations. One of the first things that needs to be updated are the administrative and management passwords.  If you are installing the ATM yourself, be sure to change these passwords. If you have your ATM professionally installed, be sure to ask your installer to walk you through the change process and don’t give anyone your passwords.

A legal professional as well as the ATM distributor may be able to assist you on what actions you can and should take, and what you should reasonably expect from such a situation. Although in the UK case, the owners had to suffer a loss, but that may vary from one company and one situation to another. It’s best to know for sure before giving up.