Do you really have ATMs that spit out $50 and $100 bills? Around here the highest bill is $20. And I've never run across any place that wouldn't take $20s.
While some ATMs have limits like that, there are many that let you select a custom amount - I regularly withdraw amounts like 45€ or 95€ to make sure I get some smaller bills.
I'm using a CC from an Internet-bank to withdraw without fees from any ATM. But apparently some banks do not like whatever contract they have with mine about that, so they want me to draw at least 50€, very rarely an ATM will even completely refuse to pay out anything.
I've used plenty of ATMs that didn't get the no bills larger than $20 memo. I haven't gotten a $100 out of an ATM, but plenty of $50s. Enough that for quite a while, I'd request $80, instead of $100, because it's less than what I want, but it will definitely be in bills I can use; $120 sometimes worked, if you knew the machine wouldn't mix denominations.
I remember as a kid in the early 90s cashiers would hold $100 bills up to the light to make sure they were real. But there's been so much inflation since then... when will we stop treating $100 bills so carefully?
$100 is still over 13x the federal minimum wage (i.e. a non-trivial amount of money for someone working at or near minimum wage), so I doubt anytime soon.
In Poland, the lowest you can reliably get from an ATM is 100 PLN (roughly $25, or 3x the pizza's worth). Many ATMs allow withdrawing 50 PLN. Very rarely, you can find an ATM that lets you withdraw 20 or even 10 PLN.
(Also, note that 10 PLN is the smallest bill we have, below that we switch to coins - 5, 2 and 1 PLN. Our ATMs don't handle coins.)
Yep. I flaked out the other week and didn't stop by the ATM before the weekend. Near the end of my run on Saturday, I stopped at a Bank of America ATM. I will admit that it offered me the chance to specify denominations, and I didn't take it up. I was quite surprised to get a $100 bill.
In the EU, yep. I remember in Austria having to withdraw "80" so I wouldn't get stuck with yet another 100 EUR note. You get used to finding the ATMs that let you get the smaller note sizes, because damn I hate being the jerk in the group that forces the waiter to break up your 50 or 100
Huh now I'm curious where you live that they don't do this? In Canada 50s and 100s come out of the ATMs. In Japan, you get 10,000 yen (~$100 USD) in ATMs.
In Boston, in the mission hill neighborhood, I was really surprised that the Bank of America ATM handed out $10 bills instead of $20 ~5-6 years ago and that was the only ATM I've encountered that does that.
That said, it seems like all of the Bank of America and TD Bank ATMs I use in Boston are starting to let you choose the bills you want on screen. Was recently in Montreal and had the same experience there too so I'm guessing that's what ATMs are trending towards.
TD Bank around NYC has started to do $50s by default in high-demand locations, obviously so the machine needs refilling less often. One workaround hack is to withdraw a number like $80, to force the transaction into $20s instead. Although I've never yet had a problem spending a $50.
Also, ATMs on casino floors in Vegas dispense $100s.
Interesting that it's a Canadian bank (TD) doing this. I wonder if they're using the same ATM tech in the US as they're using up here.
I've noticed a couple of banks in Canada where, if you ask the ATM for $100, it'll ask you if you want a single $100 bill, two $50 bills, or five $20 bills.
