ATM fees are unusual in the UK, as the parent post said, though we use the term "cash machine".

Using a cash machine is free, for the majority of cases — those in banks, supermarkets, shopping centres, railway stations and so on are run by one of the banks and are free for customers of all banks to use. It doesn't matter if the machine or customer is with/is a major bank or a small one, they're all on the same network and charge the same: £0.

The exception is captive markets. Cash machines within a stadium, nightclub or a convenience store often charge. I've never used one of these, it's so easy to avoid doing so.

The fee isn't a huge deal the times I've needed an ATM and my bank didn't have any of theirs nearby. It's a couple bucks which isn't too bad.

Free would be nice but I can understand why banks would charge non-customers fees. If your ATM is in a very high traffic and convenient place, you are going to be servicing and refilling the machine more often which costs more money. If you can control the usage a bit by charging non-customers a fee then you can reduce service costs.

In Britain, I think the banks charge each other. According to [1], 98% of withdrawls in the UK are free.

I assume this averages out amongst the large banks, who probably each have their fair share of convenient places. The small banks pay for their customers' convenience; presumably a very worthwhile cost for some of the new banks or Internet-only banks.

[1] http://www.link.co.uk/

[2] http://www.link.co.uk/about-link/statistics/

People usually pay fees for using ATMs outside their banks network (some banks join broader networks in order to offer more ATM locations to their customers.)

A few banks (USAA, Schwaab, others) offer ATM fee reimbursal, but most US ATMs will charge you unless you're part of that bank's network. It's really not the best, especially when you're at cash only places, which seem to be popping up a lot near me.

In the UK, the vast majority of ATMs are free.