Banking On Technology: The Drive-Thru
Not that long ago, you actually had to go into a bank branch to do all of your banking business. This is hard to remember in today’s technologically savvy environment. Now you can transfer funds via telephone, you can hit just about any ATM 
and get cash, and you can do almost any banking transaction online, including financing a car.
However, the inception of Motor Banking back in the late 1950s/early 1960s revolutionized the way that people did their banking. No longer did you have to get to the bank at its hours (usually Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m.—yikes!). No longer did you have to find a parking space, get little Jimmy out of the car seat, and head into the branch to wait for money. All you had to do was pull up to the window and have your banking needs met from the comfort of your own car.
And at Wells Fargo Bank, they took it one step further. They introduced the TV Auto Banker service:
Quick, easy and fun, too! Our new TV Auto Banker brings the teller to you via television. You can make deposits, withdrawals and cash checks from the comfort of your car. You can see and talk to the teller through special closed-circuit TV plus a powerful two-way voice communication unit. An underground pneumatic tube whisks transactions between the two stations.
Although not every service was available with the TV teller, at least you had a new convenience to make your life easier. This may not be as easy as paying your bills online (as I often do from my laptop while still in my pajamas), but these technological advances paved the way for the banking we do today.
Comments
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Posted by: jennifer | January 2, 2007 05:20 PM
I don't think little Jimmy had a car seat in the 50s/early 60s--just a parent's outstretched arm.
Posted by: Connie | January 3, 2007 10:26 AM
Well Connie, I think you have the post-war era summed up nicely. Big, fast cars with no seatbelts or other restraints. Everybody smoked and drank and wasted gas. The good ol' days...
HOWEVER! Our alert editorial crew (me ) looked into it. And according to pregnancy place.com, the first child restraint in a vehicle was in 1898. Car designers came up with a working model of a child safety seat in the ‘30s, but they weren’t very good – it wasn’t until the ‘60s that designers began to seriously address the question.
Is there anything History can't Guide you through? Exactly!
Posted by: Charles Riggs | January 3, 2007 01:37 PM
Charles,
Just because auto designers began to "seriously address" the need for a child safety seat doesn't mean people used them. When did that start to happen? Talking to aunts who had little kids in the 50s and 60s (I'm a child of the 70s myself) they thought that perhaps they used something for the smallest infants but remembered rather fondly holding a child on one's lap during a car ride and older children crawling around the car, playing in the back of the station wagon, and even sleeping in the rear window. And I know I wasn't in a car seat at age 3 like my niece and nephew today. I think I was sitting in my dad's lap pretending to drive. How's that for safety?
My question for CJ is didn't the original drive through tellers have windows that they needed a TV?
Posted by: Megan | January 4, 2007 10:24 AM
Can this be the earliest form of video conferencing banking? Let the cameras get better, and the broadband broader...
But as for johnny, his favorite seat was the fold-away seat in the rear of the station wagon,no seatbelt, above the gas tank, inches from the car behind him; mom would probably just leave him in the car anyways.
Posted by: JayMinator | January 4, 2007 11:14 AM
JayMinator:
Of all the searching I've done in the Archives, I can honestly say that I have not seen any evidence of video conferencing prior to this. So, yes, I believe that this may be an early, if not one of the first, forms. I guess if you wanted to be presentable to the tellers, you should comb your hair prior to getting in the auto. Like I said, I'm a pay-your-bills-in-your-pjs-from-my-laptop kind of gal!
I didn't realize how controversial my comment on the car seat would become. Even though it may not have been popular, neither was riding around in your car with a seatbelt engaged. Still, this did not stop my mother from saying, "the car doesn't start until everyone has their seatbelts on!" I had a car seat when I was little and I've been buckling up for safety for a long time...thanks Mom!!
Posted by: Christy Johnson | January 5, 2007 03:05 PM