Wells Fargo converts loyalty to cash at ATMs

Wells Fargo has introduced a new feature allowing customers to access reward points at the company’s 12,500 ATMs, converting them to cash in hand in an attempt to provide concrete benefits in exchange for customer loyalty.

The scheme offers Wells Fargo customers a $20 note for every 2,000 points a customer earns, CNBC reported.

Banks have continued to make changes to the retail banking experience to allow customers to use ATMs for other purposes than cash withdrawals, making cash deposits, transfer funds between accounts of pay bills. While ATM usage is declining around 2 per cent per year, the volume of cash dispensed has not decreased, with people still likely to use cash for purchases under $20.

In 2013 Chase Bank and PNC started to allow customers choose their own denominations for withdrawals, and   TD Bank is introducing similar technology in a certain stores in Canada and in a prototype branch in Maryland.

Higher cost transactions are now much more likely to be paid in plastic, and with the rise of digital and mobile payments, it is becoming much easier to make smaller transactions without cash.

Banks, therefore, are adding more and more options to the ATM experience, with more than 150 US banks launching “video teller” technology. JP Morgan Chase is also experimenting with biometric technology to identify customers at ATMs.

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