"Here's Your Card Back-Is That For Here Or To Go?"

The MAC automated teller machine network, the third largest processor of ATM transactions in the United States, will offer a stored-value card by the end of 1994.

Stored-value cards, long in use in Europe, are described as "electronic cash" cards. Most stored-value card purchases are in the under-$10 range. The cards themselves usually only hold either $20 or $50. After loading the dollar amount into a secure microchip embedded in the card at an ATM or at a specially designed cash-to-card machine, the holder will be able to use the card instead of cash at designated fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, pay phones, gas stations, vending machines and for mass transit.

According to Danyl Corporation, the company that will make the Cash Value Stations and the cash-to-card machines, Diebold Inc. and NCR Corp are also working to upgrade their ATMs to handle stored-value card functions.

Copyright © 1994 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 4, No. 7, 1/94