Comments on: The World's Most Southerly ATM: An Interview With Wells Fargo's David Parker

By: Widge

Widge — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:21:45 +0000

Zachary: Brilliant comment. Thanks for the info.

By: Zachary

Zachary — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:52:00 +0000

I'm currently in McMurdo at the moment. To answer the questions as to why we would need an ATM, there's only one place that accepts debit/credit cards and that's the store here. Everywhere else(bars, post office, poker games etc.) all require cash. And a purchase in the store requires $8 for a debit/credit transaction, and some people only need a $3 toothbrush. Plus, it's a backup for technology. Like as of right now, out store's security softwear for Visa and Mastercards are outdated. They told us that at any time, their POS may reject our cards. It hasn't happened yet, and only 3 weeks until the first flight of the season. Hopefully that answers some questions.

By: Widge

Widge — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:09:57 +0000

Erik: Excellent find. That had to have sucked for the six guys after they got downsized. "It says here on your resume that you used to...dispense cash at the end of the earth? And that...qualifies you to do...what, exactly?"

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:09:02 +0000

Mr. Parker said he wasn't quite sure what they were doing before the ATM was installed - there was a man on the History Channel TV show "Pawn Stars" that had a receipt from one of these very ATMs who explained it. Apparently they had about 6 people down there to dispense cash and putting an ATM in saved the government a lot of money and made more room for the scientists. You can read the transcript of the episode here, starting at about 00:12:45:
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/pawn_stars-%28a_shot_and_a_shave%29/5916/HISTP/Monday_January_11_2010/135308/

By: Dee

Dee — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:04:16 +0000

Also, if the people there are trained for maintenance, why would you need the vendor after 2 years? I find the story very intriguing!

By: Dee

Dee — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:01:56 +0000

Where does the recycled money come from? I'm sure those ATMs don't take deposits for incoming cash so how do they "recycle" cash?

By: Widge

Widge — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:17:40 +0000

Sue: Thanks for stopping by and for the info!

By: Sue

Sue — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:43:04 +0000

Commenting from South Pole! A friend sent me a link to your interview. As another Polie already mentioned here, we don't have ATMs at Pole since our satellite coverage isn't continuous. We also don't have credit card or debit card usage for the store. We request a certain amount of money deducted from our paychecks and our HR guy hands us the cash every two weeks -- or for the people who aren't Raytheon employees, they write checks for cash. We use it to buy personal stuff in the station store: alcohol, cigarettes, soda, candy, toiletries, etc. There are also souvenirs like clothing and postcards and such, but that section obviously doesn't get much traffic in the middle of winter when there is no traffic going in or out of the station. This year we have 47 winterovers (36 men and 11 women) and we're looking forward to seeing the sun again in a few weeks.

By: Tim Smith

Tim Smith — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:09:24 +0000

Widge: Only a single ATM works at a time and it's a dedicated circuit.

By: Andrew Hime

Andrew Hime — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:47:55 +0000

kto: Poker games, of course...

By: Dominiique James

Dominiique James — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:39:01 +0000

This sounds like a good material for a movie! :)

By: kto

kto — Sat, 15 May 2010 17:07:44 +0000

why do they even need cash at all there? i would have thought everyone's using debit cards and such for everything from stores to coffee machines down there.

By: i.am.stack

i.am.stack — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 04:07:09 +0000

Wells Fargo has an ATM in Antarctica and yet they still don't have service in Oklahoma....

By: Former Polie

Former Polie — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:40:40 +0000

There is a difference between McMurdo (where the ATM is) and South Pole. McMurdo has 24x7x365 coverage, due to their latitude position. South Pole does not, for the same reason.

Without knowing how the ATM communicates (I would assume encrypted phone transfers via VOIP, but what do I know), it should be able to function at McMurdo just like any ATM in another location.

There are no ATMs at South Pole.

By: Widge

Widge — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:54:10 +0000

Nate: That's a good question...I appreciate everybody's comments with other questions. My plan is to get enough of those and do a quick followup, probably over email...

By: Nate

Nate — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:23:42 +0000

What about availabllity? they don't have 24/7 internet and phone, so do the ATMs only work during certain periods? I see that the polar webcam isn't down for the season yet.. (http://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/spwebcam.cfm)

By: Widge

Widge — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:42:02 +0000

Awesome, Alex. Thanks for the ping!

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:00:25 +0000

Ping from Greenland.

By: Frontierwatch » Blog Archive » Interview with Wells Fargo on McMurdo ATMs

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:42:12 +0000

[...] an interview with the Vice President of the Wells Fargo ATM Banking Division regarding the ATMs at McMurdo: DP: [...]

By: Antartic ATMs « The Four Part Land

Antartic ATMs « The Four Part Land — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:51:22 +0000

[...] Antartic ATMs ATMs in Antarctica: An Interview With Wells Fargo's David Parker » Needcoffee.com [...]

By: Widge

Widge — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:40:18 +0000

Scott: You rock, sir. No idea what's going on with the Bad Behavior plugin but you just flat out rock.

By: neutronscott

neutronscott — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:46:49 +0000

Posting from Antarctica! Figured I'd try again via an SSH tunnel since your site thinks I'm spam when using any conventional method ... hrm.

The lines terminating in Denver is great. I changed my Google Voice number to a Denver one, thus I can call it for free, then from there the entire USA! woohoo! :)

By: links for 2010-01-23 « that dismal science

links for 2010-01-23 « that dismal science — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:30:33 +0000

[...] ATMs in Antarctica: An Interview With Wells Fargo's David Parker (tags: banking antarctica) [...]

By: Widge

Widge — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:49:14 +0000

In the 70s here, some people dressed their kids in wood trim. So yeah.

By: Stu

Stu — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:24:06 +0000

I'm not so amazed at the cashpoints being there, more at how Americans will put wood trim or panelling or literally anything...
The rest of the world salutes you, your tastelessness knows no bounds !

By: Widge

Widge — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:49:12 +0000

Bouldergeek: Thanks for the comment: lots of good information. If you ever find yourself back on the ice, access Needcoffee and send me an e-mail. I've been trying for years to get confirmed traffic from all seven continents. Six down, that last icy one to go.

By: Bouldergeek

Bouldergeek — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:21:36 +0000

I have used the ATMs at McMurdo several times. I was deployed in support of the US Antarctic Program, at South Pole Station in 2007/2008.

At both stations (and I would assume Palmer Station, though I have yet to visit there) there is a general store which also handles free movie rentals. Alcohol, snacks and souvenirs are sold to resident workers and visiting dignitaries.

As a Wells Fargo customer who lives in Colorado, I paid no fees to use the ATMs. Which is amazing, as Wells Fargo is ridiculously militant about charging high fees to use anyone else's ATMs.

Additionally, as all phone service is VOIP, your local telephone calls from the US bases come out to the terrestrial network in Colorado, hence, it is a local call to my Colorado friends, even from one of the most remote places on Earth (when the satellites are visible).

By: 位于地球最极端的ATM机 | Lorler.com ｜每天为你萝列出潮流新鲜事儿

位于地球最极端的ATM机 | Lorler.com ｜每天为你萝列出潮流新鲜事儿 — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:30:47 +0000

[...] 富国银行副总David Parker 说道：实际上我们会在那里安装2个，但不会同时启用，另一个只是作为‘硬件备份’而存在。这对我们来说也是一次技术上的挑战，这么远要保证通信常以及ATM机日常的维护也不是一件容易的事情。不过放在那种地方可想而知使用的人也并不是太多，所以它的维护会相对简单。另外，这个ATM机的主要功能还是回收现金吧(自动存钱)。来源 17,2010.01.16 上午 07:30 [...]

By: BD

BD — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:36:21 +0000

Gracias!

By: Widge

Widge — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:16:27 +0000

BD: What I took him to mean is that because McMurdo is a very finite space--as opposed to your local ATM where money could easily wind up across the country--they only need X amount to take care of the place for Y amount of time. Eventually you put enough cash in an environment and you're covered. That being said, I'm thinking it's even less of an issue these days with debit and credit cards. That would be a followup question at some point: how has the usage of the machines dropped with time? Because just like Antarctica was a dress rehearsal for a Y2K-friendly machine, Antarctica would probably go completely and utterly cashless before anywhere else.

Thanks for the comment!