ATM USERS FACE STIFFER SURCHARGES.

Byline: Karen Schwartz Associated Press 

ATM could stand for A Tad More, which is what customers seem resigned to pay for the convenience of banking at automated teller machines under new rules that took effect Monday.

``They are charging me to get my own money. That's wrong. But there's nothing I can do about it,'' said Taiwo Ogunleye, a physical therapist in the Detroit suburb of Southfield.

Already legal in 15 states, ATM operators in the remaining states were given permission to charge customers an extra fee if they use machines outside their own banking system.

The new fees, which were prohibited before by two major ATM systems, operated by Visa International and MasterCard International, are expected to range from 25 cents to $2.50 per transaction.

Until now, ATM users typically were charged about $1 per transaction by their own bank, if they were charged at all. But now consumers may have to pay two fees, one to their own bank and one to the owner of the bank machine.

``I'm not happy about it,'' Mike Campoli said as he banked at a Chase ATM in Manhattan. He expects to use other ATMs much less frequently, ``unless it's an emergency.''

Visa and MasterCard decided last year to lift the ban because banks wanted to be able to levy fees at ATMs located in hotels and resorts, convention centers and highway rest stops. Those ATMs are convenient to customers but expensive for banks to operate.

Visa did not set a maximum fee that could be charged, but said it expected banks to charge 25 cents to $2.50 per transaction for machines not owned by their bank. Some casinos, however, charge fees of $5 or more, said Don Davis, editor of Bank Network News.

There are about 122,000 ATM machines nationwide. Of the 100,000 in the Visa network, 16 percent already charged a surcharge and an additional 4 percent planned to under the new regulations, said spokeswoman Susan Forman.

Visa's Plus ATM Network and the MasterCard-Cirrus ATM Network both require banks that levy surcharges to post signs at the ATM and notify customers on the ATM screen that they face an additional fee. In addition, the consumer must have the option of canceling the transaction without penalty.

In Nevada, the first state that allowed the ATM surcharge, Dean Punke paid a $1 fee Monday to use a Bank of America ATM at the Gold Coast hotel-casino in Las Vegas. That was in addition to a 50-cent charge his bank imposed.

``It's too small (a fee) to matter for the convenience. . . . I'd spend $2 in gas just to go to the bank,'' Punke said.

But, he said, he wouldn't be willing to spend much more.

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Map: ATM fees

Money-machine users who use another bank's mach ine may soon have to pay two fees: one to their own bank and one to the bank operating the ATM.

AP