Credit union's 'cash cow' to hit road

CONVENIENCE: Granite City Steel & Community will send the ATMs to festivals in the area.

By Jennifer A. Bowen, Belleville News-Democrat

April 03, 2000

Meet PATTI the Cash Cow, the newest member of the Granite City Steel & Community Federal Credit Union.

She's big, she's high-tech, she's a van painted with black and white spots to look like a dairy cow. A loudspeaker system with nine different animals sounds can give PATTI a cowlike moo.

PATTI is a mobile automated teller machine that the credit union plans to drive to local festivals and events so the public is never without a convenient source of cash

"The whole idea behind this was finding a way to better serve our members," said Stephanie Matlock, electronic funds transfer manager for the credit union. "With the mobile ATM, we will be able to set up in places where people need money when they need it."

"The $110,000 mobile unit contains two ATMs and is protected by several alarms systems as well as being tracked by a global positioning system. Matlock said that the ATMs will operate on a generator and use cell phone lines to connect to the user's account. Anyone with an ATM card, debit card or credit card can access the service for a $1 fee per transaction.

Formally, the PATTI acronym is known as portable automated teller terminal implement. According to Matlock, she is the only one of her kind in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

"No one else has one of these," Matlock said. "She is really an original."

The credit union is planning to take PATTI to the Madison County Fair in Highland, the races at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, the Fourth of July picnic in Granite City, the Horseradish Festival in Collinsville and just about any event where there may be people who might need extra cash.