An ATM card is a

payment card Payment cards are part of a payment system issued by financial institutions, such as a bank, to a customer that enables its owner (the cardholder) to access the funds in the customer's designated bank accounts, or through a credit account and ...

or dedicated payment card issued by a

financial institution Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial inst ...

(i.e. a bank) which enables a customer to access their financial accounts via its and others'

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fun ...

s (ATMs) and to make approved point of purchase retail transactions (i.e. gas stations, grocery, hardware, department stores, etc.) ATM cards are not credit cards or debit cards. ATM cards are payment card size and style plastic cards with a

magnetic stripe The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

and/or a plastic smart card with a

chip Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific genom ...

that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or CVVC (CVV). ATM cards are known by a variety of names such as bank card, MAC (money access card), client card, key card or cash card, among others. Other payment cards, such as debit cards and credit cards can also function as ATM cards. Charge and proprietary cards cannot be used as ATM cards. The use of a credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM is treated differently to a point of sale transaction, usually attracting interest charges from the date of the cash withdrawal. Interbank networks allow the use of ATM cards at ATMs of private operators and financial institutions other than those of the institution that issued the cards. ATM cards can also be used on improvised ATMs such as "mini ATMs", merchants' card terminals that deliver ATM features without any

cash drawer A cash register, sometimes called a till or automated money handling system, is a mechanical or electronic device for registering and calculating transactions at a point of sale. It is usually attached to a drawer for storing cash and other ...

. These terminals can also be used as cashless

scrip A scrip (or ''chit'' in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitive payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local co ...

ATMs by cashing the receipts they issue at the merchant's point of sale. The first ATM cards were issued in 1967 by Barclays in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

.Jarunee Wonglimpiyara, ''Strategies of Competition in the Bank Card Business'' (2005), p. 1-3.

Dimensions

The size of ATM cards is and rounded corners with a radius of 2.88–3.48 mm, in accordance with ISO/IEC 7810#ID-1, the same size as other payment cards, such as credit, debit and other cards. They also have a printed or embossed

bank card number A payment card number, primary account number (PAN), or simply a card number, is the card identifier found on payment cards, such as credit cards and debit cards, as well as stored-value cards, gift cards and other similar cards. In some situat ...

conforming with the

ISO/IEC 7812 ISO/IEC 7812 ''Identification cards – Identification of issuers'' is an international standard published jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It specifies "a ...

numbering standard.

ATM uses

All ATMs, at a minimum, will permit cash withdrawals of customers of the machine's owner (if a bank-operated machine) and for cards that are affiliated with any ATM network the machine is also affiliated. They will report the amount of the withdrawal and any fees charged by the machine on the receipt. Most banks and credit unions will permit routine account-related banking transactions at the bank's own ATM, including deposits, checking the balance of an account, and transferring money between accounts. Some ATM cards can also be used at a branch, as identification for in-person transactions. The use of the ATM card for in store purchases or refunds is allowed only with pre-approved retailers, but not for on-line transactions. For other types of transactions through

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial ins ...

, this may be performed with an ATM card without in-person authentication. This includes account balance inquiries,

electronic bill payment Electronic bill payment is a feature of online, mobile and telephone banking, similar in its effect to a giro, allowing a customer of a financial institution to transfer money from their transaction or credit card account to a creditor or ven ...

s, or in some limited cases, online purchases (see Interac Online).

Card networks

ATM cards operate through specific networks. Interlink is just one example of the many ATM networks. Canada's

Interac Interac is a Canadian interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions. Interac serves as the Canadian debit card system and the predominant funds transf ...

and Mastercard's

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiqu ...

are examples of networks that link bank accounts with point-of-sale equipment. Some debit card networks also started their lives as ATM card networks before evolving into full-fledged debit card networks such as

STAR (Interbank Network) STAR is an American interbank network. It is the largest interbank network in United States, with 2 million ATMs, 134 million cardholders and over 5,700 participating financial institutions. The STAR Network began in 1984 and was acquired by F ...

, and others such as:

Development Bank of Singapore DBS Bank Limited, often known as DBS, is a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in the Marina Bay district of Singapore. The bank was previously known as The De ...

(DBS)'s

Network for Electronic Transfers Network for Electronic Transfers, colloquially known as NETS, is a Singaporean electronic payment service provider. Founded in 1985, by a consortium of local banks, it aims to establish the debit network and drive the adoption of electronic paym ...

(NETS) and

Bank Central Asia PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, commonly known as Bank Central Asia (BCA) is an Indonesian bank founded on 21 February 1957. It is considered as the largest privately owned bank in Indonesia. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 had a tremendous impact ...

(BCA)'s Debit BCA, both of them were later on adopted by other banks (with Prima Debit being the Prima interbank network version of Debit BCA).

Misuse

Due to increased illegal copies of cards with a magnetic stripe, the

European Payments Council The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment-integration initiative of the European Union for simplification of bank transfers denominated in euro. , there were 36 members in SEPA, consisting of the 27 member states of the European Union ...

established a Card Fraud Prevention Task Force in 2003 that spawned a commitment to migrate all ATMs and POS applications to use a chip-and-PIN solution by the end of 2010. The "SEPA for Cards""SEPA for Cards"
, the SEPA Cards Framework and EPC Cards Standardisation Programme, accessed 06. August 2010 has completely removed the magnetic stripe requirement from Maestro debit cards.

References

{{Credit cards Payment cards Automated teller machines

Dimensions

ATM uses

Card networks

Misuse

See also

References