GIANTS BEGIN FEE FOR ATMS; MORE ACCOUNTS GET HIT WITH SURCHARGES.

Byline: Marcy Gordon Associated Press 

After resisting for years, giants Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank started charging people in January to use their ATM machines if they are not customers.

That helped push the ranks of banks nationwide that impose ATM surcharges to more than 90 percent from 71 percent a year ago, according to a new survey by U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

The consumer group released the survey Thursday, the third anniversary of the decision by the two largest automated teller networks - owned by Visa and MasterCard - to allow banks and other ATM operators to impose the second charges.

The surcharges, which are paid to the bank operating the automated teller machine, come on top of any fees customers pay to their own banks when they use another bank's ATM.

The survey, conducted by the group each year, charts a dramatic rise in the frequency of ATM surcharges. It found that 93 percent of banks charged consumers for using another bank's machine in March, up from 71 percent a year ago and 45 percent in March 1997.

``Consumers should not be charged twice to use the ATM only once,'' said Ed Mierzwinski, PIRG's consumer program director. ``The double-dipping ATM surcharge is an outrageous example of . . . gouging by banks. Banks raise fees, invent new fees and make it harder for consumers to avoid fees.''

The nation's bankers say the surcharges are outweighed by the 24-hour convenience for customers and are needed to make the machines profitable.

``Today consumers have more choices than ever to get cash when and where they want it,'' said Donald Ogilvie, executive vice president of the American Bankers Association. He said the surcharges ``have led to an explosion of new ATMs in places that previously couldn't support them due to low usage, such as theaters, hospitals and neighborhood markets.''

The PIRG survey also found:

Banks are earning an estimated $2.1 billion a year from ATM surcharges.

Despite industry rules requiring signs on ATMs, nearly 25 percent of surcharging ATMs surveyed either had no sign posted on the machine warning of the fee or a sign that didn't disclose the correct amount.