Sherwood News

Cash machines now cost more than ever to use

Inflation comes for everything, even getting cash itself out from ATMs

8/21/24 10:58AM

Every year since the pandemic — when the last thing anyone wanted was to handle banknotes that had been thumbed by countless people before — society has moved closer to being cashless.

Now, simply getting your hands on physical currency is coming with a heftier price tag.

Indeed, ATM fees have hit a new high, according to a Bankrate study released yesterday, with it costing the average American $4.77 to withdraw money from an out-of-network cash machine — $3.19 of which comes from the surcharge charged by ATM owner, on top of a $1.58 fee that’s kindly doled out by your own bank for using a non-network machine.

Balance on screen

This marks the 4th consecutive year that ATM fees have risen, with the overall decades-long trend largely driven by the hikes in surcharges incurred to non-bank cardholders by ATM owners.

However, not all machines are created equal: while the study found that the metropolitan areas with the lowest combined average ATM fees were Boston ($4.16) and Seattle ($4.34), the district with the highest combined fees for the second year in a row was Atlanta, where you’ll get charged ~$5.33 for using an out-of-network ATM.

Even with steeper withdrawal charges, as well as overdraft fees also increasing by 1.7% to ~$27 this year, banks still appear to be loosening up on some other stipends: the same report outlined that average non-sufficient fund fees fell by a further 11% from last year to a record low of $17.72.

Hyunsoo Rim

hardly working

5/27/26

Teens aren’t getting summer jobs like they used to — this year could be worse than ever

Teen summer hiring in the US might hit its lowest level since federal tracking began, new report finds.

Saleah Blancaflor

5/15/26

From Desi Arnaz to SpaceX: Understanding the rules of the modern economy

We talked with “Planet Money” author Alex Mayyasi about how AI might help or replace you, the superstar effect, and how the compounding effect extends beyond money.

Globes covered with various currencies suspended in space

Millie Giles5/8/26

Ahead of Mother’s Day, Google searches for “same day flower delivery” have ticked up a little earlier this year

If you’ve already made plans for a Mother’s Day gift in advance of this Sunday, congratulations. But if alarm bells are suddenly ringing, consider this a gentle reminder that, like a sizable share of the US population this time of year often does, you can still scrape together some last-minute flowers for the woman who carried you for nine months.

Data from Google Trends reveals that searches for “same day flower delivery” spike in the US in May every year, when Mother’s Day takes place. As we noted last February, the same query also gains traction around Valentine’s Day.

This year, however, it appears that searches for last-minute flowers have remained elevated in the last two months after the usual peak in February — with the search interest this April actually exceeding that seen around Cupid’s Day.

Honestly, we’re not sure why searches are spiking a little early. One explanation might be that Passover and Easter have overlapped at the start of April, and Americans wanted to celebrate with some flowers. Maybe it’s a host of Claude bots that are now running errands for AI-obsessed execs — or perhaps Americans are just impulse-buying some seasonal spring blooms after an unusually warm March, without a particular occasion.