ATM Cards

Automatic Teller Machine cards -- frequently referred to as ATM cards, or their more generic designation "Bank cards" -- allow you to get access to cash, deposit checks into your account or make balance inquiries into your account all through the now ubiquitous bank machines.

Benefits of Bank Cards

While some smaller credit unions and local banks still only allow access through their local branch's automatic teller machines, the main attraction for many of atm cards, besides the convenience of being able to access your funds or account information outside of normal banking hours, is that many of the more popular bank cards are on one of the national or international automatic teller machine networks. Card holders linked into one of the popular national or international information networks have the ability to access their funds or account information at non-branch bank machines.

In return for the ability to access your funds at bank machines not owned by the member institutional within which your funds are deposited you often pay a fee -- to both the "network" and your own bank.

Some of the common bank machine information networks include PLUS, Star, MasterCard, Visa.

Anonymous ATM Cards

Many clients of ours who are interested in offshore banking or our offshore financial services are keenly interested in anonymous atm cards. Anonymous ATM cards work the same as typical bank cards, debit cards, or our prepaid MasterCard. You can still make point of sale (POS) purchases and access funds and the cash in your offshore account through one or more of the ubiquitous bank machine networks. The key difference between an anonymous bank card and a "regular" atm or offshore credit card is that the anonymous cards do not have any name embossed on them. The cards operate at merchants and bank machines by the holder of the card and the private identification number (PIN) or "pin code".

While this does allow a greater degree of anonymity, it should be noted that many "onshore" bank machines are equipped with cameras. Obviously, if you use your card at an atm machine equipped with a camera you should have no expectation of financial privacy, much less, anonymity.