Germans and Their ATM Troubles

There's this argument going on in the German public sector over bank and ATM fees.

Up until maybe fifteen years ago....most Germans were still using the teller system and stopping by after work once a week to pick up all the cash they needed. At some point.....there was this division. The old dudes kept up the bank visit practice, and the younger folks went straight to the ATM card. Time has passed now, and the old dudes are dying out, and the banks are realizing this vast empty pocket on profits. Naturally, the ATM fees are now a problem.

If you go with most German banks....it's around four to five Euro per ATM transaction....basically $6 to $7.50. For an American, this is a silly amount to pay.....just to remove $100. Germans have built this into a science though....making one trip over per month and removing what they need for the whole month. Then they utilize their charge card to charge on gas, groceries, and everything else of a fair amount.

Yes, they do carry around a bit of cash with them....but if you asked the typical German around thirty-five years old....he'd probably admit he barely has 120 Euro ($145) in his pocket on pay-day for the next month to spend. He'll budget this out and keep himself in check. He knows when he can have a beer or two....buy his lotto cards....or pick up flowers for the girlfriend.

This discipline that Germans have brought themselves up on.....sustains this notion of one visit per month.

The thing....some banks are charging ten Euro per ATM transaction ($12.50). The experts are laughing over this mess because a typical bank only needs around 65 cents to actually perform the feat. So they are making at least a couple bucks profit each time, and in some cases.....almost ten bucks.

Naturally, the government wants to get banks to volunteer to fix this. Some banks want a simple solution and a couple of bucks profit. And some banks think they deserve maximum profit, unless the government forces them to do otherwise.

The media has covered this discussion in fair detail. The public has various opinions on this. The truth of the matter is that most folks really don't want to get angry at their bank because they don't want to switch....this old problem of 'change', and the German attitude to avoid it at all costs.

In the end, the sad part about this story is that the German government will be forced into this solution because no one wants to truly solve or fix the problem.