I'm sick of having to check and double-check the amount I'm depositing. And if there's checks, it's not as if I have a calculator handy! ATMs should have bill acceptors and OCRs for easy deposits.
-- Juuitchan, Jan 03 2001

It "will" figure it out for you. Fill up an ATM envelope with checks and tap in $100,000, you can bet that someone will add those up for you by the time you get your next statement. (I would not recommend doing this with cash...but most people do not put cash into an ATM anyway.)
-- blahginger, Jan 03 2001


I'm from a semi-backwards area (county population: 40,000) but for some reason we have hands-down the most awesome ATMs I have ever seen. They recently added full-color LCD displays that show pretty pictures while it's doing stuff. It also has a coin dispenser (you can make 4-cent ATM withdrawals--I've done it!), and--most importantly--a direct check reader. You insert the check, sans deposit envelope. It reads the MICR strip to ensure that you really gave it a check, then it shows a scanned image of the check on the screen. It displays the written amount (and is quite accurate--even with handwritten checks!), asks you to reenter the amount if it's not correct, and then you can deposit it, give it all in cash down to the penny, or do a split deposit/cashback transaction.

I lived in the Washington DC area for about a year and did not encounter such cool ATMs. I hope they make their way around soon. It doesn't really save time if you have multiple checks, but it shows that the OCR technology is definitely present and works quite well.
-- segfaultxr7, Jul 17 2001


What? Your ATMs can't count bills? I don't know where you're living, but I think this is pretty well baked (like, 10 years baked) throughout the more developed nations.
-- cheeselikesubstance, Jul 18 2001


Note readers are commonplace on ATMs in many parts of the world, if not most. As for cheques, why bother? They are an inefficent, pre-electronic form of moving money around that are on their way out.
-- BertieWooster, Jul 19 2001


Sadly 90% of major companies including all the utilities and government offices like to process all refunds by cheque, so we will probably never be rid of them.
-- CasaLoco, Jul 20 2001



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