ATMs dish out talking time

By PETER GRIFFIN

Remember when the "hole in the wall" was just a means of accessing your hard-earned cash?

Today, that mechanised teller is taking on other duties, and some of them - depending who you bank with -have nothing to do with banking.

WestpacTrust has emerged as the first bank in Australasia to provide its account-holders with the ability to top up their Vodafone pre-pay mobile via an automatic teller Machine (ATM).

The bank's national network of 487 ATMs have been enabled with new screens guiding customers through the top-up process.

Customers insert their debit card as normal, enter their PIN and access the pre-pay option by pressing the "other stuff" button. They then key in the phone number of the mobile to be topped up, using the ATM keypad, and the amount of credit they want.

The transaction, like a cash withdrawal, is instant and is accompanied within five minutes by a telephone text message from Vodafone confirming the top-up.

The service costs the same as a standard transaction - 35c - but will vary depending on the customers' account set-up with WestpacTrust. Students and pensioners, for example, are not charged ATM transaction fees.

WestpacTrust spokesman Peter Thornbury said the option was available on WestpacTrust ATMs for only the bank's account holders at this stage, but would be opened up to other banks' customers using WestpacTrust's machines.

"We've invested a lot of money in our [ATM] network, which is the largest in the country by far. It's about trying to get other services onto the machines," he said.

Ultimately, new services - such as the purchase of tickets or vouchers - will become available on most ATMs.

Vodafone's sales director, Andrew Barton, said the service would soon be expanded to other banks.

Reuben Parlane, a 21-year-old Vodafone mobile user and WestpacTrust customer, said he would probably use the service because he was always running out of pre-paid minutes at the worst possible times.

"It's gotta beat trekking to your local shop to pick up a pre-pay card."