Thursday, July 08, 2004

Stamps out of the ATM

I can get stamps out of the ATM at Wells Fargo, which is a pretty cool thing (provided I remember that I need stamps when I am getting money out; I've never made a special trip to the ATM to get stamps).  Stopping at a Wells Fargo ATM today and seeing the option on the screen, I got to wondering what else ATMs could dispense.

Obviously whatever the ATM dispenses would need to be no larger than the average size of a piece of American currency, but could probably be as thick as 10 bills (I think $200 is the maximum you can get out of an ATM).

Besides selling pre-paid phone cards, pre-paid wireless cards, pre-paid credit cards, and Chiclets, I couldn't really come up with anything else useful that could be dispensed.

Can any of you think of anything?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

only $200 at a time from an ATM? In Japan users can withdraw over $5000 :)

Peeved Michelle said...

Have you ever actually tried to get stamps out of the ATM. I have tried several times and it always says it is out of stamps. I think it is a hoax designed to make you think that Wells Fargo is trying to make your life easier, but they really, really aren't.

Ross said...

I actually have gotten stamps out of a Wells Fargo ATM at least one time in Colorado. I suppose there is potential for it to be a scam in the rest of the country, or maybe it's just a really popular product whose demand cannot be kept up with by the bank.

Anonymous said...

I just found this page by doing a web search of "stamps ATM" because I had this great idea last night that stamps could be dispensed at ATMs. Looks like Wells Fargo beat me to it. I have great ideas for things that are already in production and get this kind of disappointment on about a weekly basis. One of these days.
Other things to dispense: A temporary car or house key in case you lock yourself out. The key designs would be kept on file and accessible with your PIN. Have fun developing that. Another idea, install a printer with the atm where you can print out any files you've uploaded to the bank's website.

Anonymous said...

You may want to know that getting stamps from an ATM may be cool, but Wells Fargo charges a whopping 9 cent surcharge per stamp (by my math, that makes it close more than a 20% profit margin). So your 44 cent stamp costs 53 cents.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the post about Wells Fargo's surcharge on stamps. I needed stamps and didn't want to wait in line at the post office. I usually buy them at Costco at a discount. I was at the ATM and paid $9.54 for 18 stamps. I can only say that Wells Fargo is only going to ripe me off for stamps once... $1.62 for dispensing stamps... they just seem to want to bleed the consumer dry...

Jason said...

Yeah I agree it is a huge markup for stamps, unfortunately i find myself purchasing from the ATM more than once as I at times find the almost $2 premium worth it to avoid the line at the post office or the mass crowds at costco