THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603030079
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
MasterCard International Inc. succumbed to industry pressure Friday, permitting banks to charge extra fees to users of its automated teller machine network, one of the largest in the country.
The announcement came a few months after Visa International, a bank association that sets rules for ATMs, said banks could begin imposing extra fees on users April 1.
The change means that users of ATM cards, an increasingly popular way to get cash and transfer money between accounts, will have to pay for that service if they use machines outside of their bank's own system. The fees will vary and will be posted at ATM sites.
Most ATM networks have said they would permit this. But the MasterCard/Cirrus ATM network was the last big holdout, which could have potentially limited the ability of customers to use its machines.
``In order to ensure that ATM owners that favor surcharging remain in our network and that cardholders continue to experience unsurpassed access to ATMs, we had to comply with the industry's direction,'' MasterCard said in a statement.
MasterCard is a global payments company that provides credit cards, debit cards and other payment products through relationships with 22,000 financial institutions worldwide. Its ATM system includes more than 260,000 machines.
KEYWORDS: CREDIT CARDS by CNB