At the time, my girlfriend (now wife) used to tell me I wasted so much $$ on ATM fees by only withdrawing $10 at a shot.
I told her I was not good at budgeting my money and I had a tendency to spend whatever was in my pocket, irrespective of the amount.
So, $10 was my way of putting brakes on my spending. Fees were just part of the cost of my budgeting method.
She married me anyway.
Back when ATMs were new, you could get any amount, including change.
The ATMs at the Chase bank next door currently dispense any bills you want, but not change. After you tell it how much you want, it asks you how you would like it and you can tap different denominations.
Last month I took out $17, just to see it work.
He could withdraw whatever amount he wanted from the ATMs at college, but since that region's ATM network wasn't hooked up to his home bank's ATM network, it took months for everything to reconcile.
He could keep withdrawing, even if he had taken out far more cash than he had in his home bank account.
On breaks, he would go back home and pick up enough hours at his part-time job to cover the difference (it wasn't unusual for people to be paid weekly or in cash back then), make a deposit, and everything was fine. He just had to keep one step ahead of the computer batch processes.
Also, I think Chemical is Citibank now. I had a Chemical account, and a Dime account. I still think of Citi as "Chemical," though.
Back in the early 1990s, I withdrew $10 from an ATM.
But the machine gave me two $10s (they were stuck to each other).
I then went back for a second transaction (secretly hoping there were multiple "stuck $10s" waiting to be released).
The machine only dispensed a single $10 the second time, so I stopped.
Let it be known that I owe Chemical Bank (or whoever bought them) $10 + interest.