Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Nice of CNN Money's David Ellis to let us know that the people who have made an entire industry based solely on ripping you off at the ATM with a 20% fee on a $20 withdrawal don't much like the notion of limiting those fees to 50 cents.

In fact, some experts suggest that capping fees might result in more harm than good for consumers.

One likely consequence would be a reduction in the number of ATMs. At the end of last year, there were roughly 425,000 cash-dispensing machines across the country, according to industry figures. About half of them were controlled by independent operators like Cardtronics (CATM) and Louisville, Ky.-based firm Payment Alliance.

Experts said these companies would be devastated by a fee cap since they earn nearly all of their revenue from charging customers that visit their machines.

Independent operators, as a result, might choose to operate only in locations that generated a lot of foot traffic, where a greater volume of transactions would offset the decline in fees. Some community lenders and credit unions might also rethink whether it's worth having so many ATMs for their customers.

Consumers, of course, might argue that a decline in the number of ATMs wouldn't necessarily be a terrible thing, given the glut of cash-dispensing machines.

But some experts fear the contraction would be far more severe than people expect.

"You could get an ATM wasteland," said Nicole Sturgill, research director in delivery channels for consulting firm TowerGroup.

An ATM wasteland would be horrible!  You wouldn't want that.  Continue giving your money to people so you can use your money, peons!  How dare you ask for lower fees from an industry that makes a third of your domestic profits...why they won't be able to afford to run ATMs!

Won't anyone think of the poor, poor banks?