What ATM vaulting is and who it's for

Every ATM on your route needs cash in it, and someone has to supply that cash, load it and come back before it runs out. ATM vaulting is the service that takes that job off your hands. A vaulting provider funds the machine with its own cash and handles the refills, so your money isn’t tied up in cassettes across every location you’ve signed.

This post covers what ATM vaulting actually involves, the different levels of service you can buy, how it’s priced, and how to tell whether it makes sense for your route.

What ATM vaulting means

In this business, vault cash is the money sitting inside the machine waiting to be dispensed. It isn’t revenue and it isn’t yours to spend. It’s working capital parked in a steel box, and it has to be replaced as fast as customers take it out.

An operator who self-funds carries that cash personally: withdrawing it, transporting it, loading it and reconciling it, for every machine, on whatever schedule the machine demands. A vaulting service does that instead. The provider puts its cash in your machine and keeps it stocked, on a schedule set by how fast the machine actually runs down.

Why vault cash is the part people underestimate

When operators plan a route, they price the machines and they think about location splits. The cash requirement is the part nearly everyone underestimates. It’s money that sits in the machine rather than in your account, multiplied by every machine you run.

That has a few knock-on effects:

• It caps growth. Every new location needs its own cash float. If you’re funding it yourself, your route can only grow as fast as your spare capital.
• It makes a busy machine a problem. A location that does well runs down faster, which means more refills and more cash out on the road.
• It creates risk. Carrying and loading cash is the part of the business with real security exposure. Our refills run under the security protocols the cash-in-transit side of this business requires.

Vaulting doesn’t remove the need for cash in the machine. It moves the job of funding and loading it to someone set up to do it.

The three levels of ATM vaulting service

Not every operator needs the same thing. We offer vaulting at three levels, and the right one depends on how much of the work you want to keep.

Vaulting with machine and full service

We install an ATM at your contracted location and stock it with our cash. We own the machine and the vault cash, and we handle the service. This is the completely hands-off option: you bring the location, we bring everything else.

Vaulting without machine

We manage cash refilling for the ATM you already own, at your contracted location. This level is cash only. Servicing and maintenance are not included, so repairs, bill jams and programming stay with you or whoever you already use.

Full servicing and vaulting without machine

Cash refilling plus full maintenance and servicing on your machine. You keep ownership of the hardware, and the day-to-day work of keeping it stocked and running moves to us.

All three work for one machine or a whole route. The full breakdown is on our vaulting and refillers page.

How ATM vaulting is priced

There’s no flat national rate for vaulting, and anyone quoting you one before seeing the location is guessing. We price per location, based on two things:

1. Distance from our nearest technician hub. A machine a short drive from a hub costs less to service than one far from it.
2. How much cash the machine needs to hold. A high-volume location needs a bigger float and more frequent refills than a quiet one.

So the useful first step is to send us the list of locations you want covered. We’ll quote each one on its actual numbers rather than an average.

Vaulting, refilling and processing on machines you already own reach further than our free placement footprint does, so a location outside the 27 placement states may still be covered for vaulting. Ask.

When vaulting makes sense for a route

Vaulting is worth a serious look if any of these sound familiar:

• You’re turning down locations because you don’t have the cash to fund another machine.
• You spend more time loading machines than signing new locations.
• Your machines are spread far enough apart that refill runs eat your week.
• You want to hand off the cash side without selling your machines.

It makes less sense if you have spare capital, a small, tight route close to home, and you’re happy doing the refills yourself. Plenty of operators self-fund their first few machines and move to vaulting as the route grows.

The point to keep in mind is where your time goes. What actually grows a route is getting good locations signed. Every hour spent on cash runs is an hour not spent on that.

How vaulting fits with processing and servicing

Vaulting is one piece of what an operator needs. The others are processing, a portal to watch your machines, parts and repair support, and a plan for a machine that goes down on a holiday weekend.

We handle those too. Our ATM processing for IADs and operators covers portal setup and training, terminal setup, parts support and downline structure. The vaulting and services overview shows everything we do for operators in one place. You can take vaulting on its own, or pair it with processing so one team is looking at the cash levels and the transactions together.

Common questions

Do you service ATMs I already own?

Yes. That’s our vaulting and refilling service, at three levels: cash refills only, full servicing and refilling on your machine, or a machine we provide and stock ourselves.

How much does ATM vaulting cost?

It’s quoted per location, based on distance from our nearest technician hub and how much cash the machine needs to hold. There’s no flat national rate.

Does cash-only vaulting include repairs?

No. Vaulting without machine covers cash refilling only. If you want maintenance and servicing too, that’s the full servicing and vaulting level.

Can you vault a whole route?

Yes. Every level works for a single machine or a full route.

If you run machines and want the cash side handled, talk to our operator team with your locations and we’ll quote each one honestly.