1967 First cash dispenser installation: The first cash dispenser, made by De La Rue Instruments, makes its debut in a Barclays Bank branch near London. It uses paper vouchers bought from tellers. The machine is called the De La Rue Automatic Cash System, or DACS.

(According to the article written by Invention & Technology’s Mike Lee, John Shepherd-Barron — the cash dispenser inventor, claims that the paper vouchers are actually checks impregnated with Carbon 14.)

1968 Card-eating: Barclays and a few other banks introduce a machine that encodes cash on plastic cards purchased from a teller. The problem is that the machine always eats the cards, and customers have to buy new cards if they want to make more transactions.
atm Diebold’s early ATM, called a TABS machine.

1969 First use of ATM magstripe cards: Docutel installs its Docuteller machine at New York’s Chemical Bank. The installation marks the first use of magnetically encoded plastic.

Chemical Bank’s ad campaign announces: “On Sept. 2, our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again!”

Other manufacturers get into the game, but Docutel is the first to apply for a patent. Docutel is later credited by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as being the ATM’s inventor. But most people in the industry recognize Docutel’s first machine as the first modern magstripe machine.

Donald C. Wetzel is given credit for developing the Docutel machine, which is initially met with resistance from bankers. Bankers say they’re concerned about the machine’s cost, which is about $8,000 more annually than a human teller. The bankers also fear that customers won’t like having a machine handling their money.

1971 First true bank ATMs: Docutel introduces its Total Teller, the first true fully functioning bank ATM.

1973 Proliferation begins: By 1973, 2,000 ATMs mostly from Docutel- are operating in the United States. They sell for about $30,000 each.

Diebold begins work on the development of its TABS 600 with plans for an off-line prototype.

1974 Diebold’s first TABS 500 machine, an off-line version, is installed at a bank in Atlanta. Diebold develops the TABS 550, an on-line and off-line version. The flexibility of the machine makes it unique and more marketable to banks.

The TABS 600 also is developed.

1978 The first IBM-compatible Diebold machine is installed at a bank in Indianapolis.

1990 The number of units nationally from approximately 110,000 in 1996 to nearly 230,000 by the end of the century, now, the number is approaching 500,000 with over 80% belonging to the private sector. The ATM Industry Association states there will be 1,000,000 ATMs in the U.S., by 2020.

Note: This timeline was compiled through a number of sources and contradictory information may exist.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Issues with getting dollars exchanged (I´ve had a great –sarcastic- experience this week)

Traveler´s checks…very few places that will except them…create a list of where for the stranded people who bring them.
Help the small places that have flexible terms

Talk about CREDIT CARD fraud in general and statistics between in-store and ATM fraud

Do not use ATMs in ¨box¨ stores and why they are not recommendable
Define and show card skimmers and cameras

Always cover your pin when typing it in

Comparison between Mexico and US and Canada concerning fraud…not just here

ATMs that should be used are new and skinny and look like new technology – If they are big and boxy they cannot have security upgrades on them as they have fallen behind technology times

Old, big, bulky ATMs are taken out of stock in the US and shipped to Mexico instead of dismantled

Do not use ATMs in vestibules as it is much easier to have a skimmer and camera installed there

POS terminal fraud with skimming machines happens in stores, restaurants, etc. – do not let your card out of your sight –

recommended that you sign, not use your pin

Bringing dollars in bulk into Mexico is not the best plan as the exchange rate is undervalued at exchange houses – it is better to get the international rate from an ATM

Don´t carry lots of cash out with you and when going home, get in a fucking cab

List of 800 numbers for all banks and ATMs in case there is a fraud issue

Use companies with reputable customer service in case there is a fraud issue

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A first cash dispensing device was used in Tokyo in 1966.[5][6] Although little is known of this first device, it seems to have been activated with a credit card rather than accessing current account balances.

In simultaneous and independent efforts, engineers in Sweden and Britain developed their own cash machines during the early 1960s. The first of these that was put into use was by Barclays Bank in Enfield Town in North London, United Kingdom,[7] on 27 June 1967. This machine was the first in the UK and was used by English comedy actor Reg Varney, at the time so as to ensure maximum publicity for the machines that were to become mainstream in the UK. This instance of the invention has been credited to John Shepherd-Barron of printing firm De La Rue,[8] who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year’s Honours List.[9] His design used special cheques that were matched with a personal identification number, as plastic bank cards had not yet been invented.[10]

The Barclays-De La Rue machine (called De La Rue Automatic Cash System or DACS)[11] beat the Swedish saving banks’ and a company called Metior’s (a device called Bankomat) by nine days and Westminster Bank’s-Smith Industries-Chubb system (called Chubb MD2) by a month. The collaboration of a small start-up called Speytec and Midland Bank developed a third machine which was marketed after 1969 in Europe and the USA by the Burroughs Corporation. The patent for this device (GB1329964) was filed on September 1969 (and granted in 1973) by John David Edwards, Leonard Perkins, John Henry Donald, Peter Lee Chappell, Sean Benjamin Newcombe & Malcom David Roe.

Both the DACS and MD2 accepted only a single-use token or voucher which was retained by the machine while the Speytec worked with a card with a magnetic stripe at the back. Hence all this these worked on various principles including Carbon-14 and low-coercivity magnetism in order to make fraud more difficult. The idea of a PIN stored on the card was developed by a British engineer working in the MD2 named James Goodfellow in 1965 (patent GB1197183 filed on 2 May 1966 with Anthony Davies). The essence of this system was that is it enabled the verification of the customer with the debited account without human intervention. This patent is also the earliest instance of a complete “currency dispenser system” in the patent record. This patent was filled on 5 March 1968 in the USA (US 3543904) and granted on 1 December 1970. It had a profound influence on the industry as a whole. Not only did future entrants into the cash dispenser market such as NCR Corporation and IBM licence Goodfellow’s PIN system, but a number of later patents references this patent as “Prior Art Device”.[12]

After looking first hand at the experiences in Europe, in 1968 the networked ATM was pioneered in the US, in Dallas, Texas, by Donald Wetzel, who was a department head at an automated baggage-handling company called Docutel. On September 2, 1969, Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York. The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card.[13] A Chemical Bank advertisement boasted “On Sept. 2 our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again.”[14] Chemicals’ ATM, initially known as a Docuteller was designed by Donald Wetzel and his company Docutel. Chemical executives were initially hesitant about the electronic banking transition given the high cost of the early machines. Additionally, executives were concerned that customers would resist having machines handling their money.[15] In 1995, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History recognized Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM.[16]

ATMs first came into use in December 1972 in the UK; the IBM 2984 was designed at the request of Lloyds Bank. The 2984 CIT (Cash Issuing Terminal) was the first true Cashpoint, similar in function to today’s machines; Cashpoint is still a registered trademark of Lloyds TSB in the UK. All were online and issued a variable amount which was immediately deducted from the account. A small number of 2984s were supplied to a US bank. Notable[citation needed] historical models of ATMs include the IBM 3624 and 473x series, Diebold 10xx and TABS 9000 series, and NCR 50xx series.

“They’re clever scoundrels,” fumes John Shepherd-Barron at his remote farmhouse in northern Scotland. He is referring to the seals which are raiding his salmon farm and stealing fish.

Inventor’s memories

“I invented a device to scare them off by playing the sound of killer whales, but it’s ended up only attracting them more.”

But failure with this device is in contrast to the success of his first and greatest invention: the cash machine.

The world’s first ATM was installed in a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London, 40 years ago this week.

Reg Varney, from the television series On the Buses, was the first to withdraw cash.

Inspiration had struck Mr Shepherd-Barron, now 82, while he was in the bath.

“It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash.”

Barclays was convinced immediately. Over a pink gin, the then chief executive signed a hurried contract with Mr Shepherd-Barron, who at the time worked for the printing firm De La Rue.

Teething troubles

Plastic cards had not been invented, so Mr Shepherd-Barron’s machine used cheques that were impregnated with carbon 14, a mildly radioactive substance.

The machine detected it, then matched the cheque against a Pin number.

However, Mr Shepherd-Barron denies there were any health concerns: “I later worked out you would have to eat 136,000 such cheques for it to have any effect on you.”

The machine paid out a maximum of £10 a time.

“But that was regarded then as quite enough for a wild weekend,” he says.

To start with, not everything went smoothly. The first machines were vandalised, and one that was installed in Zurich in Switzerland began to malfunction mysteriously.

It was later discovered that the wires from two intersecting tramlines nearby were sparking and interfering with the mechanism.

One by-product of inventing the first cash machine was the concept of the Pin number.

Mr Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his six-figure army number. But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline.

“Over the kitchen table, she said she could only remember four figures, so because of her, four figures became the world standard,” he laughs.

End of cash?

Customers using the cash machine at Barclays in Enfield High Street are mostly unaware of its historical significance.

A small plaque was placed there on the 25th anniversary, but few people notice it. Given that there are now more than 1.6 million cash machines worldwide, it is a classic case of British understatement.

Mr Shepherd-Barron says he and his wife realised the importance of his invention only when they visited Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

They watched a farmer arriving on a bullock cart, who removed his wide-brimmed hat to use the cash machine.

“It was the first evidence to me that we’d changed the world,” he says.

But even though he invented the machine, Mr Shepherd-Barron believes its use in future will be very different. He predicts that our society will no longer be using cash within a few years.

“Money costs money to transport. I am therefore predicting the demise of cash within three to five years.”

He believes fervently that we will soon be swiping our mobile phones at till points, even for small transactions.

At 82, Mr Shepherd-Barron is very much alive to new ideas and inventions – even though his device that plays killer whale noises still needs a little bit of tinkering.

By Brian Milligan
Business reporter, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/6230194.stm

1. Always protect your PIN.
• Don’t write the number down
• Cover the keypad while you enter the number
• Don’t give the number out to anyone
2. Always pay close attention to the ATM and your surroundings. Don’t select an ATM at the corner of a building — corners create a blind spot. Use an ATM located near the center of a building. Do your automated banking in a public, well-lighted location that is free of shrubbery and decorative partitions or dividers.
3. Maintain an awareness of your surroundings throughout the entire transaction. Be wary of people trying to help you with ATM transactions. Be aware of anyone sitting in a parked car nearby. When leaving an ATM make sure you are not being followed. If you are, drive immediately to a police or fire station, or to a crowded, well-lighted location or business.
4. Do not use an ATM that appears unusual looking or offers options with which you are not familiar or comfortable.
5. Do not allow people to look over your shoulder as you enter your PIN. Memorize your PIN; never write it on the back of your card. Do not re-enter your PIN if the ATM eats your card — contact a bank official.
6. Do not wear expensive jewelry or take other valuables to the ATM. This is an added incentive to the assailant.
7. Never count cash at the machine or in public. Wait until you are in your car or another secure place.
8. Closely monitor your bank statements, as well as your balances, and immediately report any problems to your bank.
9. If you are involved in a confrontation with an assailant who demands your money, COMPLY.