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Say, Boston also has a surcharge-free ATM network
By Ron Newman on Wed, 08/23/2006 - 11:41am
But you wouldn't know it from reading this article in today's Globe.
Memo to Globe business editors: learn something about the SUM ATM network.
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Comments
It's an AP article...
probably not meant to be a rundown of local offerings.
the SUM network isn't national
Two points here:
-1- The Globe article referenced is a pickup from the national Associated Press (AP) feed, so I don't think you should be overly harsh on Globe editors. (It's not like they wrote it or assigned it.)
-2- The ATM networks described in the AP article are part of a trend in which smaller, local financial institutions give their customers access to a NATIONWIDE system of surcharge-free ATMs. The Boston-area "SUM" network is *very* local, with relatively few nationwide options. Check the index of SUM ATMs and you'll find that entire states are excluded (Arizona, Minnesota, to name but a few).
http://www.sum-atm.com/index.asp
Given the SUM network's limitations, it's not really newsworthy to mention it in the same article. (Although I'm all for supporting credit unions and other institutions that provide surcharge-free ATMs.)
Yes, it's from AP, but ...
Newspapers routinely rewrite or edit wire service stories to add locally-relevant information. In this case, the Globe could have at least located some Boston-area banks that were part of either Allpoint or MoneyPass. Then they could have contrasted these networks with SUM, in exactly the way you did.
Running the AP article unchanged didn't serve Globe readers well.
sum
I love me the SUM network. I use a small merrimack valley bank in haverhill, and am able to cross the street at my office and take money out of the small marblehead bank, without any effin' surcharges.
when baybank was bought up, i dropped them. never looked back. never went with whomever was gobbling up the little ones. if my bank gets bought, i'm finding another small bank.
i had a situation 2 years ago while unemployed where we bounced a mortgage check, had a ton of bounced check fees, and it was a veritable trainwreck there. I thought we were going to lose our house. i walked into the bank and the bank president and customer service manager helped me iron out everything so we didn't get foreclosed on, and then three days later i got a letter saying they were refunding 50% of my bounce fees.
Bank of America/Fleet/Whatever Huge Assed Bank never would have done that for me.
Sum network and smaller banks equal the way to go. They rule.
now i'm off to make a withdrawal nextdoor to go get lunch.
My West Roxbury conundrum
When I'm on Centre Street and need cash, do I go to the Hyde Park Savings Bank branch, the Cooperative Bank branch or the Peoples Federal Savings Bank branch, all within half a block of each other? Decisions, decisions.
Also, as long as we're on Centre Street, dear Hyde Park Savings Bank and Cooperative Bank people: Could you please coordinate your clock/thermometers? It's unnerving to not know which set of numbers to believe.
SUM network
I love the SUM Network. I can almost always find an ATM to use. I also love Wainwright Bank because it's easy to actually speak to a human being on the phone instead of being given the runaround like when I used a large bank.
surcharge-free
I agree in that the SUM network is not nation-wide. I bank with Sandy Spring bank and they have Allpoint Network which is the largest surcharge-free network in the nation...I have access to thousands of free ATMs. Sooo happy I don't have to pay surcharges anymore!!