n what appears to be a final decision on the matter, the U.S. Supreme Court refused on May 27, 2003 to hear one more plea from two California cities that want the fees banks charge non-customers on ATM transactions to be outlawed.

In 1999, voters in San Francisco and Santa Monica passed local laws that would prevent banks from adding surcharges to ATM transactions for customers who were not customers of those banks.

These people have been hit particularly hard with ATM fees banks started charging in the 1990s. ATM surcharges range from $1.50 to $2 per transaction per bank. If you use an ATM that is not owned by your bank, not only do you get hit with a fee from that bank, your own bank often will charge you a fee as well.

Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., two of California's largest banks, did not take the local ordinances lightly.

The banks threatened to allow only their own customers to use their vast network of ATMs; they also teamed with the California Bankers Association to fight the issue in court and got a federal judge to block the laws from going into effect.

In October 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the banks - stating that the cities' laws were in violation of federal laws because only the federal government could place those types of limits on the federally regulated banking industry.

Federal laws currently allow banks to charge access fees to non-customers.

San Francisco and Santa Monica appealed to the Supreme Court, but the court chose not to hear the case, without comment. Both the banks and the cities said they expected the decision.

The only option left for the cities is to lobby for federal legislation and to better educate citizens on how to avoid these fees.