MIDLAND, Texas — In the Permian Basin area, residents are finding that fewer and fewer ATMs are appearing at banks.
For the ones that are still in the Permian basin, lines can stretch as people wait to make deposits or withdraw cash.
Prior to 2019, there were up to 470,000 ATMs nationwide.
That number has been dwindling due to a variety of reasons, such as various fees and an increase in mobile banking.
One major factor is bank jugging, a crime that has been occurring more and more often.
“Jugging is a slang for a crime when a suspect waits at a bank or an ATM machine for a customer to withdraw money and leave," said Earl Davis with Midland Police. "The suspect then follows the customer to another location and commits the crime.”
Odessa Police have reported two cases in the last week while Midland Police confirmed that they are investigating two cases from the past two months.
Bill Day, the senior vice president and communications manager with Frost Bank, says that Frost is actually increasing the amount of ATMs in their service.
However, he did acknowledge that other banks may be shifting their focuses towards other methods of banking.
Some of their new methods stem from the after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and others look to borrow methods from companies like Amazon.
“As we all learned from the pandemic, the more things you can do online or on your mobile phone, the more convenient and more easy it is," Day said. "So then you think, why can’t I do that with my bank, why can’t I apply for a loan online, why can’t I make a deposit online, take a picture of my check. That’s why banks have been doing more and more stuff online.”
According to research done by Frost, 77% of customers believe that better accessibility to their money increases financial belonging.
However, it has led to a resurgence in one form of banking long thought to have been passed up: drive-thru banks.
“When our physical banking locations were shut down and you couldn’t walk into a branch, you could still do all of your transactions, talk to a banker, open accounts and get loans through the drive-thru," Day said. "So as we’ve expanded and built new locations, we’ve increasingly added motor banks when previously the trend was that people aren’t really using the drive-thru banks anymore.”