NEW YORK (NewsNation) — Cash is still king, but “reverse ATMs” may be the way of the future as more businesses shift to cashless-only transactions.
These reverse ATMs, also known as cash-to-card kiosks, are being installed in amusement parks, fast-food restaurants and many professional sports venues and will soon be installed in airports and on college campuses.
In New York City, Madison Square Garden is one of many venues that’s installed machines inside its arena that can convert cash into a debit card.
Here’s how it works: Consumers load money into a kiosk, and within seconds a receipt prints confirming the conversion and a prepaid active card is issued. Many of the prepaid cards are MasterCard or Visa and consumers can use them anywhere the cards are accepted.
Many machines don’t charge fees, but some kiosks may charge a $5 fee for the card.
Some cards carry a “dormancy fee,” for example, a $3.95 charge if the card isn’t used for more than three months. It also may be hard to use the card balances if a small amount is left, Axios reports.
Business owners have said they like the kiosks because they help prevent theft and robberies and stop the spread of germs that can be found on dirty cash.
Many businesses and consumers started going cashless during the coronavirus pandemic because they didn’t want to touch cash and coins fearing they would contract the virus.
But cities across the country like San Francisco, D.C. and Philly have cashless bans so business owners can’t refuse to accept cash.
The FDIC said nearly 5 percent of U.S. households, or six million Americans, are considered “unbanked” — meaning they don’t have a checking or savings account, so for many people cash remains their preference.