ATMs In The Post Office ?

Mailing your letters, buying your stamps, and making a withdrawal from your bank account while you're in the post office may be a possibility in the near future.

The U.S. Postal Service has invited financial institutions to rent space and install automated teller machines in their lobbies. They hope to place ATMs in 700 post offices throughout the United States. Seattle has had one in a post office location since 1974 on an experimental basis, and it has evidently proved to be popular with customers there.

To turn a profit, an ATM located away from the owning institution must handle approximately 6,000 transactions a month. With ATMs already installed in (or just outside) banking locations, supermarkets and convenience stores, the industry may not want to spend additional money to rent space in post offices. Therefore, some experts in marketing have reasonable doubts on the success of the post office proposal.

The post office hopes it works. They are projecting the contracts with financial institutions to generate about $2 million in revenue between March and September, 1990.

Lets hope our customers don't start asking us if they can buy stamps through the ATM, or start mailing their letters in the deposit slot!

Copyright © 1990 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 1, No. 3, 3/90