The Way You Use ATMs Is Likely to Change This Year

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JPMorgan Chase recently made national headlines when it announced new ATMs that will allow customers to withdraw cash with their smartphones — but the bank is not alone.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Bank of America and Wells Fargo also will start introducing such ATMs over the next few months. Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase are the nation’s three biggest banks.

Bank of America’s head of digital banking, Michelle Moore, tells the newspaper the bank will make cardless ATMs widely available as early as May. She adds:

“My boys are 5 and 6 — I don’t think they’ll carry around plastic when they grow up.”

Wells Fargo plans to add cardless access to a limited number of ATMs by the summer and to all ATMs by the end of the year, according to the LA Times.

TechCrunch reports that Bank of America and Wells Fargo are also working to integrate Apple Pay into their ATMs.

Dan Ackerman, an editor at CNET, tells CBS News that smartphone-friendly ATMs will soon become the norm, explaining how they work:

“Instead of taking the plastic card out of your wallet, you take your phone, log into the app … and it gives you what they call a ‘one-time use code.’ So, you type that code in, you log in, and then that code evaporates.

It’s kind of like that two-factor authentication that everyone should have on their email where they give you that extra layer of security.”

To learn more about two-factor authentication, check out “A Free and Easy Way to Shop the Web More Securely.”

But while the use of smartphones in banking and shopping can increase security, it also has drawbacks, Ackerman says:

“You go to stores now, and you set up a shop and they don’t have a cash register. They have an iPad and a card reader.

The downside is that you don’t have the ability to whip out your wallet and pay with cash in a non-traceable way. Young people who don’t have bank accounts, who get paid in cash, who are not part of the online connected generation, they will get left behind.”

Would you want the ability to use your smartphone to withdraw cash? Let us know below or on Facebook.

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