My wife, ever the financially astute member of our household, absolutely despises paying ATM fees. To her, those little $2 and $3 charges are the acid that eats away at our weekly expenses. I’m not a big stickler about avoiding ATM fees, much to her chagrin. This got me thinking – which big bank has the most fee-free ATMs?
If you, like my wife, hate paying ATM fees, consider opening an account with one of the national banking providers on this list.
I’ll admit it – spending money to get money is as unnecessary these days as it is redundant. The average ATM fee is now $3.14. Pull cash out once a week, and you’re spending $165 a year to pull cash out of a machine. You wouldn’t pay a $165 annual ARM fee to join a bank, would you?
This post identifies a few banks around the country that offer a large number of free ATMs as part of their marketing. As in, free ATMs are baked into the advertising of their accounts.
Citibank
My favorite big name bank with a lot of free ATM access is Citibank. They have something like 65,000 ATMs in their network that won’t charge you a dime to get your cash. But a few years ago, it got even better.
Now that you can use your Citibank card for free at Costco, CVS, Target, and a few other big retailers, it’s really easy to find a place to withdraw money without paying a fee. If you aren’t near one of these ubiquitous stores, you can check out Citi’s worldwide ATM network and find a free place to get cash near you, even in other countries.
Quontic Bank
Quontic Bank members have access to “90,000+ ATMs across the nation.” You won’t pay any fees from withdrawing from these ATMs. I looked at their ATM Locator and it looks like you can use ATMs at places like CVS and Walgreens as well as a few big grocery retailers and big box stores, all for no cost. That’s really convenient because it’s easy to remember: “If you need cash, go to Costco,” or whatever.
Axos Bank
Axos Bank offers a few accounts that offer free ATM withdrawals, but a little differently. Besides their network of 91,000 free ATMs nationwide, Axos Bank’s Rewards, Cashback, and Essential checking accounts offer “unlimited ATM reimbursements.” If you open a Golden checking account with Axos, you’re limited to $8 in ATM fee reimbursements per month.
If you have one of those three accounts, every ATM is fee-free, provided you don’t mind waiting for a monthly reimbursement rather than the quick hit of “I didn’t pay for that!” at the time of withdrawal.
Paramount Bank
Customers of Paramount Bank can use any of 37,000 Money Pass ATMs nationwide for no fee. They can also get reimbursed for up to 20 out of network ATM withdrawals per month. You have to wait to the end of the month for the bank to pay you back, but for those of us that operate on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual budget, that’s no big deal.
I think twenty withdrawals per month is plenty. Honestly, if you’re getting cash more than five times a week, you probably have some other financial issues to consider before you tackle your ATM fee structure.
LendingClub
LendingClub is famous for their debit card cashback rewards program, as they should be. But I also love their unlimited ATM fee reimbursement policy, which is also based on a monthly rebate system. They have a network of around 40,000 ATMs that members can use for no fee, but even if you have to go outside that network, they’ve got you covered.
As a LendingClub user, I can vouch for their customer service when it comes to reimbursing fees – their refund policy is wide-open, and I’ve always felt welcome to appeal for a rebate when one wasn’t granted.
Conclusion
Good news – access to free ATMs is increasing. As banks use their ever-larger networks to compete for business, more and more financial services companies are using things like rebates to make the process of withdrawing cash a little less painful.
The banks on this list provide solid financial services with a focus on giving customers free access to their funds.