You can already use your phone to pay for goods in stores and in apps, but soon you’ll be able to use it to take out physical money at ATMs, too.
Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo have confirmed that they’re working on solutions that’ll let their customers withdraw cash from ATMs using just their smartphone. Bank of America will be the first of the three out of the gate with NFC-based ATM functionality, with plans to launch careless ATMs at select machines in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Charlotte, New York, and Boston, with a larger rollout in mid-2016. While a Bank of America rep wouldn’t confirm which phones will work with the cardless ATMs, a source tells TechCrunch that the bank is working on Apple Pay support.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo has confirmed that it plans to support Android Pay at its cardless ATMs, which will also use NFC to replace plastic cards. A Wells Fargo exec hinted that Apple Pay would be supported, too, and TechCrunch says that it has been informed that that is indeed the case.
Finally, Chase is planning to roll out cardless ATM functionality in two phases. The first will work with the Chase app, which will require the user to authenticate themselves using a password or Touch ID. They’ll then get a a seven-digit code that’ll let them access the ATM. Later on in 2016, Chase plans to begin using ATMs with NFC that’ll let the phone and ATM talk to one another rather than requiring the user to enter a code given to them by their Chase app.
Using your phone to take money out of an ATM would be beneficial for a few reasons. For example, you won’t have to worry about card skimmers, which thieves can place in an ATM and use as a way to steal your card information when you use the machine. Cardless ATMs also enable you to still get cash if you don’t have your plastic card handy. Unfortunately, even though banks like Bank of America and Chase are planning to start supporting cardless ATMs this year, it’ll probably be a while before these machines are widespread. At least the feature is going to start its rollout this year.