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A new product called the Money Map directs travelers to ATMs and other locations where they can obtain cash.

December 4, 2000 by

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Many companies have claimed that they "put ATMs on the map."

Angela C. Allen of Money Map Inc.has literally done so. She created the Midtown Manhattan Money Map, which she bills as "an all-in-one guide to finding ATMs, banks, currency and more."

The document was inspired by a trip to Scotland, during which Allen was left stranded with no cash. She said she spent two hours trying to locate an ATM that would accept her bank card.

When Allen did some research, she was surprised by the lack of available resources. MasterCard and Visa, among others, feature ATM locators on their Web sites. However, Allen said, "quite frankly, they are an embarrassment."

The locators largely ignore non-bank ATMs which, in the U.S. at least, make up more than half of the installed base of machines. "They haven't kept up with the pace of the business," Allen said. Her map includes nearly 200 independently-owned ATMs.

In addition to ATMs, the map directs money-hungry users to banks, check-cashing outlets, currency exchanges and wire transfer services. It also serves as a street guide with subway information and traffic directions.

"We wanted to give (travelers) choices," Allen said. "I think that's what's missing from a lot of travel literature and also online."

Allen covered 36 blocks of midtown Manhattan on foot to verify more than 400 addresses. "When you're giving it to people who are walking around, they're dependent on you to put them exactly where they want to go," she explained.

After conducting the field research, Allen created and edited the map with cartographer David Lindroth. It comes in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese.

The map is currently being sold at Manhattan-area Barnes & Noble stores and at more than a dozen newsstands and gift shops. It's been featured in the Travel section of the New York Post and in November will appear as a "Hot Pick" in WHERE Magazine, which is distributed at New York City hotels.

Allen hopes to convince the publishers of travel guidebooks like Frommer's and Internet portals like Travelocity.com to incorporate the map into their products. "Ultimately I'd like for it to reach travelers before they get here," she said.

With 38 million tourists expected to visit New York City this year, Allen's hometown was a natural for the first Money Map. She hopes to produce versions for other popular tourist destinations, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago.

She plans to revise print versions bi-annually and will do more frequent updates if online versions are introduced, to avoid what she contends is an all-too-common problem of inaccurate material.

She thinks the map could help boost transactions at independent ATMs in retail locations.

"I think one of the big problems with ATMs, especially those in non-traditional locations, is that the public hasn't kept pace with the rate of deployment," she said. "Stringing a banner across the side of your business is one way of reaching people, but I think you want to go beyond that. We can literally put these companies on the map so they don't get lost in the shuffle."