Customer Reviews

YOUniverse ATM Machine Bank

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

My daughter (9 years) was given this as a birthday gift and absolutely LOVED it! She has two younger sisters and so to be able to stash her cash in a secure place was very appealing. Some things I liked about it:
1. Any card will work as the "ATM" card to activate the machine
2. If the "PIN" number is forgotten, you just remove the batteries and it resets the machine so you can set a new PIN.
3. The slot for putting in your money is just like a vending machine. It doesn't sense the value of the bill so you have to enter the amount deposited manually.
4. If your child is diligent about entering the amount withdrawn when they take money out, the machine will keep a tally of your balance. For a child learning the value of money, this is a very cool feature.

Some things I didn't like about it:
1. There is a slot for depositing coins, which the machine CAN sense the value of. However, the coins go into the general compartment, and clank around within the compartment - would have been nice if the machine automatically put each type of coin into a certain slot.
2. The vending slot for depositing bills also just stuffs the money into the general compartment. You have to open the bank every so often to ensure the bills are not getting jammed up.

This is a great product for the money and I highly recommend it. It's probably better for kids 8 and up.

Update Nearly One Year Later (last review was from December 2004)....
Ok, so we finally had to change the batteries on this thing and of course the package instructions have long since been lost, which provide the manufacturer preset pin number. So after a few futile efforts to reset the pin, or at least get her hard earned savings out without breaking it open, we searched the internet for the manufacturer Summit Products Inc. web site to get another copy of the instructions. It was surprisingly VERY difficult to find. So you don't have to do the same leg work, here it is: www.summittoy.com. Once I got to their web site, finding and printing the instructions was quite easy and the atm is working like a champ again and my now 10 year old is quite happy!

I purchased this for my almost 6 year old. He had no trouble figuring out how to use it and it works fairly well. It has helped him grasp the meaning of saving money to work toward a goal. It has also motivated him to want to save. He recently started receiving a weekly allowance. Now he is responsible for saving to buy toys that he wants. It has elimiated the "MOM, can I have this?" everytime we are out. After I told him a few times "Do you have money for it? Do you want to spend your money on it?" the begging has nearly disappeared! Highly recommended.
The only negatives I've found are:
1) The dollar bill intake does not always work - it can be circumvented by opening the safe and making a manual deposit
2) Sometimes when depositing coins, if the coin doesn't go in the slot on the first try, the bank will still register a deposit. This will throw the total off. Again, a manual adjustment can be made (but only if you are aware that there was a problem in the first place).

I like it a lot and it works great!!! But you need either crisp bills or you need to fold the bills. And the batteries are included. Overall it's great.So if you are looking for an ATM bank this is the one to get!!!

I was really excited when I saw this ATM Bank. Finally, something to teach my little girl about making "deposits" and "withdrawls" in her own account (and not actually having to make a trip to the bank). When you push a coin through the slot, it determines the $ amount by the size of the coin and adds it to the balance. When adding bills, you must first tell the machine what you are adding and then feed it in. Problem #1: If you push the coin down on the slot but you aren't actually able to get it to go in, it still adds the amount to the balance. Which at that point, the balance is incorrect. I expected that maybe my child wasn't doing it quite right but after adding over $15 of change to her bank, I found that about 30% of the time, it would add the amount of the coin even if you weren't able to actually put the coin in the bank. Pointless for keeping track of a balance. Problem #2: The money is not kept in any kind of container. The bottom drawer opens and the money comes falling out all over the place. It would have been nice to have a drawer of some sort to contain the money in. Problem #3: The bottom drawer falls off all the time. When you select the option to make a withdrawl, you push the button to open the door. When you touch the door, it generally falls off in your hand. As a pretend play ATM Machine, I would say that my child enjoys pretending to deposit and withdraw money (like her Mom) but as a bank to assist with educating her about money, FORGET IT!

I bought this for my 8 yr old daughter as a birthday gift. It is a very educational toy. I liked the toy over all-The atm card is a nice feature and personal name and password was a great touch. It also keeps a grand total of your savings. All its missing is a slip at the end of your transaction. The only downside i saw was it didnt have a large compartment for the money and it could get stuck when you open the door to take it out (if you have alot of change or bills).

This toy is the boom!Four things and more I love about this toy.It is neat and not small where people can loose it.You can have your own account and don't have to worry about people tapping in and tanking your money.It's like a real machine.And it's like you own your own bank,and so much more!

This would be a wonderful learning toy, however, there have been some flaws. If there are too many bills in the bank, it gets jammed and won't accept any more bills. After only a few months, the bill feeder on ours would not accept any bills and just made a horrible grinding noise. We bought another one and the bill feeder broke after only a few uses. It was such a disappointment because this could have been a really cool and fun learning toy.

This toy was the best thing for even me, a thirteen year old, i love it! Unfortunately, its fallen off my dresser a few times, and it still hasn't broken. I wish some of my other toys were this durable!

It worked good in the beginning then after a month it wacked out. My daughter couldn't get her money out because it would keep erasing her password even after changing the batteries it would not work. It would get all weird. Big bummer because it really was neat.

Hi, I'm 11 and I got this ATM Machine for my Birthday. I think it's GREAT. You enter in how much the $ bill is worth so it envolves math. In the picture there is a fake card, but that card only turns the machine on. You have to have a password to be able to see your accout, blance withdraw money, and deposit money. If you forget your password all you have to do is press the reset button on the back side. When I was puting all my money in it after 5-10 bills I realized that the bills wouldn't
go in so you have to go ing to withdraw and open the holder to rearrange the bills so they don't get stuck. Also when you put coins in it it already knows how much the coin is worth. I hope my review is helpful to you and I REALLY REALLY REALLY (ect.) recomend this. IT'S GREAT!!!