Mobile Payments Systems are nothing new, but during 2015 they definitely came back with force, thanks to announcements from Apple, Google and Samsung in a matter of months of each other. While Apple Pay is most definitely the most widely-available of the three, Android Pay is gaining ground and Samsung Pay is itself a flexible solution that can be used with older hardware, as well as NFC-equipped terminals. Many stores and card providers have signed up for both Apple Pay and Android Pay, but a few banks have outlined plans to introduce ATM machines with NFC terminals allowing people to get cash even when they don’t have their debit cards with them.
Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo have all outlined plans to roll out these modern ATMs throughout 2016 and beyond. Starting with Bank of America, it appears they’ll be first to get their ATMs out there with machines starting to appear in late February in select areas of Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Charlotte, New York and Boston. More areas are to go live throughout 2016, but this is a decent start for them, to say the least. Chase meanwhile, will begin offering customers a way to generate a code on their smartphone to authenticate and withdraw cash from ATMs. This is part of their first phase of two, the second phase will offer up NFC-equipped ATMs for even easier use. Wells Fargo however have confirmed that NFC-equipped machines will be arriving later this year, but haven’t gone much farther than that.
Machines churning cash without a card have been used all around the world with different systems and varying successes, but these new machines could be the first step of finally bringing the ATM into the 21st Century once and for all. This modernization is pretty exciting, but as usual it will depend on whether or not all banks and card providers will support the most popular platforms. Android Pay is likely to emerge, alongside Apple Pay, as one of the most widely-available, but supporting Samsung Pay gives banks a tough choice as the service is only available on a handful of phones right now.