Wells Fargo's new ATMs to ride into town

Hitched to its famous stagecoach logo, the Wells Fargo brand has been slowly but surely wheeling its way toward the Charleston area.

This week, the big lender from out West will drop into town to make a deposit of sorts in its newly acquired local territory.

Wells Fargo & Co., which entered the local market in 2008 when it bought out Wachovia Corp. and pulled the longtime North Carolina-based lender from the brink of collapse, is set today to install the first of its own newfangled automated teller machines in the area.

In all, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo will install 197 of the new ATMs throughout South Carolina, including 43 in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. The conversion, which kicked off in Anderson last week, is scheduled to wrap up in April. The first local switch is set to take place today at the bank's Citadel Mall branch, 828 Orleans Road.

Wells Fargo's name and signs won't be splashed onto its 147 South Carolina offices probably until late 2011, so for the time being, the new ATMs still will be identified as belonging to "Wachovia, A Wells Fargo Company."

"It's a subtle introduction to the Wells Fargo brand," said bank spokeswoman Christine Shaw.

The replacement ATMs won't require envelopes for deposits, will offer six language options -- English, Spanish, Chinese, Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese -- and will even stock postage stamps for sale. They can process up to 50 bills or 30 checks at a go.

Some of the other bells and whistles include a "breadcrumbs" function enabling users to backtrack to previous steps and make changes. The machines also have a "What You Do Most" feature that displays a customer's top three transactions in order to go straight to them.

Rick Redden, Wachovia's regional president, called the new ATMs a big step up from the current models.

"They will save our customers time and hassle," he said.

Wachovia remains far and away the biggest bank in the Charleston region by one key measure. As of June 30, its 26 local branches accounted for $2.16 billion in deposits for a 22.56 percent market share, according to the most recent federal data.

Reach John McDermott at 937-5572 or jmcdermott@postandcourier.com.