What the ATM at a Michigan Dispensary Actually Charges You

An ATM withdrawal can cost you more than the tax on your weed.

On a $20 adult-use eighth in Michigan, the receipt tax is $3.32. The average out-of-network ATM withdrawal costs $4.86. On a bigger basket, the tax wins.

I'm Jamie. I grow sun-grown flower in Michigan, and Divine Toke sells it by mail from Detroit.

No counter here, so no shop ATM. Shops with a counter are still mostly cash.

What Do You Pay at a Michigan Dispensary ATM? #

Two different companies can charge you for one withdrawal: the owner of the machine, and your own bank.

Bankrate's 2025 checking and ATM fee study came out September 10, 2025. It put the average machine surcharge at $3.22 and the average fee from your own bank at $1.64.

Bankrate adds those averages and gets $4.86. In the Detroit metro, the same study's combined average was $5.25.

Bankrate surveyed bank ATMs. No dispensary machines were in the study, so $4.86 is a benchmark for comparison.

The study covered 245 financial institutions in 25 big cities, from June 2 to July 3, 2025. A private ATM in a shop can charge more than $3.22, or less.

The only machine fee that applies to you is the one on that screen.

The two fees stack when both sides charge:

• The surcharge is the machine owner's fee. In the Bankrate study, every ATM-owning bank charged non-customers. None of them cut that fee over the prior year.
• The out-of-network fee is your bank charging you for leaving its network. The $1.64 figure is an average that includes zeros. Bankrate found that in 39 percent of cases, the bank or the account charges nothing for an out-of-network withdrawal.
• If your bank is in that 39 percent, you may only pay the machine. The national average for that piece alone is $3.22.
• If your bank does charge, you pay both. The published combined average is $4.86.

Charge	2025 Bankrate average	Who takes it	Shows up when
Machine surcharge	$3.22	ATM owner	On the screen, before you agree
Your bank, out of network	$1.64 average, and 39% charge $0	Your bank	Often later, on the account
Both, national	$4.86	Both	The number to set next to the tax
Both, Detroit metro bank ATMs	$5.25	Both	A local ballpark, not a shop price

The machine has to warn you first. Under Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.16, the ATM operator must tell you a fee is coming, and the amount. That notice shows up on the screen or on paper, before you are locked in.

You can cancel. The notice covers the operator's fee only. Your own bank may add its fee later, and that one does not have to show up on the screen.

A second trip is a second pair of fees. If you pull $20, see the tax, and go back for another $20, you can pay the surcharge twice.

Ask for the total with tax before you walk to the machine.

Once a week at the $4.86 national combined average is about $253 a year. That's 52 times $4.86. Bankrate didn't publish a yearly total. I multiplied.

At the Detroit metro combined average of $5.25, the same weekly habit is about $273. Skip the machine and both numbers go to zero.

Does the ATM Fee Cost More Than the Michigan Tax? #

On a $20 adult-use purchase, the receipt tax is $3.32 and Bankrate's combined ATM average is $4.86. So the fee can cost more than the tax.

On a $40 purchase the receipt tax is $6.64, so the tax is the bigger bill. Ticket size, and whether your bank adds a fee, decide which one wins.

Michigan adult-use flower takes two receipt taxes, and they stack.

The Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act puts a 10 percent excise tax on the sales price. The statute says that tax is "in addition to all other taxes." Excise here means the extra cannabis tax on the receipt.

Michigan Treasury says that 10 percent sits on top of the state's 6 percent sales tax. Revenue Administrative Bulletin 2023-25 shows the order on a $100 example: $10 of excise, then sales tax on $110, which is $6.60.

The sales-tax base includes the excise tax. Admin Code R 205.141 says the same thing.

Sticker price means the number on the menu before tax. A statewide average price is a different number from your menu, and the ounce price post shows why.

Scale that example down and the receipt tax is 16.6 percent of the sticker:

Sticker price	10% excise	6% sales tax on sticker + excise	Tax on the receipt	$3.22 surcharge only	$4.86 combined average	$5.25 Detroit combined
$10	$1.00	$0.66	$1.66	Fee is higher	Fee is higher	Fee is higher
$20	$2.00	$1.32	$3.32	Fee is $0.10 lower	Fee is higher	Fee is higher
$30	$3.00	$1.98	$4.98	Tax is higher	Fee is $0.12 lower	Fee is higher
$40	$4.00	$2.64	$6.64	Tax is higher	Tax is higher	Tax is higher

On the $20 row: if you only pay a $3.22 machine fee and your bank charges nothing, the fee loses to the tax by a dime.

If both fees land at the national averages, you pay $4.86 to get your own money and $3.32 to the state. At the metro average, the gap is wider: $5.25 versus $3.32.

If a shop advertises a tax-free day, the ATM fee still applies. Here is how those sales work.

A $10 jar, a cheap pre-roll, or a single gram is where the fee looks worst. Divine Toke's mail-order pre-roll is 1 gram at $7.50, and the eighth is 3.5 grams at $20.

Those are Divine Toke's mail-order prices. The tax math above works for any adult-use sticker.

On a $7.50 adult-use item, 10 percent is $0.75 and 6 percent of $8.25 is about $0.50. Receipt tax is about $1.25. A $3.22 surcharge is already more than double that tax.

The gram-versus-eighth math lives in 1 gram versus an eighth.

Medical cards change the tax. The ATM fee stays. #

A registered medical sale skips the 10 percent excise tax, so the ATM fee beats the receipt tax even more easily.

RAB 2023-25 says the 10 percent does not apply to transfers under the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. It also skips medical sales by provisioning centers, the license for a medical shop.

The old 3 percent medical excise tax was repealed on March 6, 2019. The 6 percent sales tax can still apply.

On a $20 medical price before tax, 6 percent is $1.20. Set $4.86 or even $3.22 next to $1.20 and the machine is the expensive line.

Shops that hold both licenses have to keep medical and adult-use sales apart in the books. If a sale cannot be shown as medical, Treasury's bulletin says it is treated as adult-use. Both the 10 percent and the 6 percent apply.

Bring your card if you are buying on the medical side. The ATM charges the same either way.

The 24 percent wholesale tax is a different bill #

Do not add 24 percent on top of this ATM comparison.

Michigan's wholesale marijuana tax, in effect January 1, 2026, is charged earlier, between the wholesaler and the retailer. Treasury's FAQ says the wholesaler owes it and may collect it from the shop.

The ATM takes none of it. On a normal adult-use receipt you still see the 10 percent and the 6 percent.

That tax can already be baked into the sticker. The 24 percent wholesale cannabis tax covers how it works.

One wrinkle from the same FAQ: a seed-to-sale retailer can pass the wholesale tax through and print it on your ticket. That amount is part of the price the 10 percent and the 6 percent sit on top of.

What Is a Cashless ATM, and What Happens to the Round-Up? #

A cashless ATM is a card terminal dressed up as an ATM, so a weed purchase can pass as a cash withdrawal.

You often approve a rounded amount. Sometimes you get the difference back in cash.

Sometimes part of that difference is the fee. The screen should show which is which.

Marijuana Moment reported Visa's December 2, 2021 compliance memo.

In Visa's words, cashless ATMs are "POS devices driven by payment applications that mimic standalone ATMs." The machine gives you no cash.

Visa says the purchase is "miscoded as ATM cash disbursements," and amounts "are often rounded up to create the appearance of a cash disbursement."

Visa said those transactions belong on a real ATM network only when the machine is actually dispensing cash.

The memo points at merchant category code 6011, the code for automated cash disbursements. It also points at Visa's Plus network, which is reserved for ATM cash.

The memo never says the word cannabis. It does say the devices are "primarily marketed to merchant types that are unable to obtain payment services," because of network rules or the law. That fits a dispensary.

The same article gives a dollar example. A $45 purchase gets rounded up to $60 and coded as a cash withdrawal. The shop would subtract the purchase and the tax from that $60 and hand the change back.

Your bank sees something like a $60 ATM hit. You think you bought weed with a card.

Cannabis Business Times, on July 27, 2023, described the same move with a tighter example: round a $55 order up to $60 and give the customer $5 back.

That $5 comes back to your hand, so it is change. A fee is money you never get back.

Before you enter the PIN, get two numbers out loud. One is the amount that will leave the account. The other is the cash, if any, that comes back to your hand.

If those numbers are $60 out and $5 back, you funded a $55 basket and you are holding $5. If the second number is zero because "the fee ate it," the gap is a charge.

Nobody has published a national dispensary fee for that gap that I can stand behind. Bankrate's $3.22 and $4.86 are for ordinary ATMs.

A cashless button can be a different product with a different number. Read that screen.

What "Salt" means on a pin pad #

Salt does not publish a customer fee. Searching "Salt cashless ATM" will not give you the number on your ticket.

Salt's pricing page says the company sells card, bank-transfer (ACH), and cashless debit tools for dispensaries. It does not publish a one-size-fits-all rate card.

Quotes are custom for each shop. There is no public rate card.

If the pad or the receipt says Salt, that's that shop's payments setup. The fee you pay is whatever that terminal shows before you approve it.

I won't invent a Salt surcharge, a Salt round-up rule, or a Salt statement name. Ask for those two numbers.

If the person at the counter can't answer, pay with cash you already have.

Your statement may not show the dispensary's name. Visa's memo, as quoted by Marijuana Moment, says part of the problem is a misidentified merchant or location. That makes the charge look like an ATM cash disbursement.

If the line says "ATM withdrawal" and the amount is fatter than the jar, that fits this pattern. Check the amount before you type the PIN.

What Did Visa and Mastercard Shut Down? #

Visa told payment companies on December 2, 2021, to stop coding store purchases as ATM withdrawals. Mastercard told banks on July 26, 2023, to stop cannabis purchases on its debit cards.

Cashless ATMs came first. Then some shops switched to a PIN-debit button.

A button on a counter in 2026 can still be a workaround.

Marijuana Moment's December 10, 2021 report is the clean public record of the Visa memo.

Visa said it was "aware of a scheme." Miscoding would be "subject to non-compliance assessments and/or penalties" or "further compliance enforcement." The memo did not publish a fine schedule of its own.

Cannabis Business Times covered the next hit on July 27, 2023.

Bloomberg reported it the day before, and Reuters ran it that same day.

Mastercard's line, carried in that coverage: "we instructed the financial institutions that offer payment services to cannabis merchants and connect them to Mastercard to terminate the activity."

Cannabis Business Times is clear that this covered debit-card purchases. Cashless ATMs were the earlier workaround those purchases replaced.

Side by side:

Year	Who spoke	What they targeted	What you might have seen
December 2, 2021	Visa, compliance memo	Cashless ATMs that code a purchase as MCC 6011 ATM cash	Rounded totals, "ATM" on the statement, change in your hand
July 26, 2023	Mastercard, to banks and processors	Cannabis transactions on Mastercard debit, including PIN debit	Debit buttons that died, then came back under a new name
After both	No new network permission I can cite through October 8, 2026	Shops still need a way to take a card	A button, a pad, or a speech about "cashless"

I don't have a 2026 head count of how many shops still run one of these pads. Workarounds get rebuilt.

If the pad works today, the amount on it is still a private charge. The network can still tell a bank to cut it off. Carry enough cash for the total with tax so a dead button does not strand you.

Credit cards were never the normal path, and the debit crackdown did not open a back door for them.

If someone offers to run a credit card "as cash," read the next section before you agree. That path is a loan.

How Is PIN Debit Different From the ATM and a Cash Advance? #

A real ATM gives you cash from your checking account. A PIN-debit purchase pays the store from that same account. A credit card in the ATM is a cash advance, which is a loan.

The buttons feel similar because they all want a PIN. The bill comes from a different place each time.

What you do	Where the money comes from	What a fair charge looks like	The expensive version
Your own bank's ATM, in network	Your checking or savings	Often $0	A second fee if you picked an out-of-network machine by mistake
Dispensary ATM, out of network	Your deposit account	Screen surcharge, plus maybe your bank	$3.22 average surcharge, $4.86 if your bank also charges the average
Cashless ATM or "cash back" at the shop	Your deposit account, coded like an ATM	Rounded amount, change back if they offer it	The gap you do not get back, plus a bank fee that thinks you used an ATM
PIN debit, if a shop still has a true one	Your deposit account, as a purchase	Close to the receipt total	A per-transaction add-on printed before you approve
Credit card at the ATM	Your credit line	Do not do this for a jar	A cash-advance fee, interest from day one, and the ATM surcharge too

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says withdrawing cash on a credit card is a cash advance.

It's a short-term loan. The issuer can charge a flat fee or a percentage of the advance.

Interest usually starts the day you take the money. The cash-advance rate is often higher than the purchase rate. The ATM can still add its own fee on top.

The CFPB's grace-period explainer says the interest-free gap people rely on for ordinary purchases generally does not cover a cash advance.

Pay the card in full every month and you can still owe interest on that one withdrawal.

I'm not quoting a single national cash-advance price. Your card agreement sets it. Look at the cash-advance line on the statement before you need weed money.

If the fee is ugly, leave the credit card in the car.

Cash back at a grocery store works differently. You buy something the card networks allow, then ask for cash back. Bankrate notes that cash back on a debit purchase is generally free, with a lower limit than an ATM.

Do that at a normal store before you reach the shop. A dispensary pad that rounds you up and calls it cash back is a different product.

How Do You Skip the Fee on a Detroit Run? #

The cheapest withdrawal is the one you skip at the shop.

Use your own bank or credit union on the way, and ask for the out-the-door total once.

Here is the order that saves money:

1. Price the basket with tax before you leave the house. A $20 adult-use eighth is about $23.32 out the door ($2.00 excise plus $1.32 sales tax). A $40 basket is about $46.64. Add a little for a lighter or a tip if you tip. One withdrawal should cover it.
2. Stop at an in-network ATM. Your bank's machine avoids both the $3.22-style surcharge and the out-of-network fee. So does a credit union machine inside that credit union's network. On a shift it is easy to blow past that stop, so plan it for clock-out, not the shop lobby.
3. Check whether your bank pays you back. Bankrate's study says some banks and online accounts reimburse the other owner's surcharge. In 39 percent of cases there is no out-of-network fee from your side at all. One minute with the fee schedule beats guessing at the counter.
4. Read the shop screen and cancel if you hate it. Regulation E requires the operator to show its fee, and the amount, before you are committed. You can cancel. Your bank's fee may not be on that screen, so look it up ahead of time.
5. One swipe only. A second withdrawal can double the surcharge. If you are short a few dollars, put one item back. That often costs less than another $3 to $5 to reach your own cash.
6. Get grocery cash back before the dispensary, if you want a card and a small amount of cash. That's a normal debit purchase plus cash. The shop's cashless button is a different product.
7. Leave the credit card out of the ATM. A cash advance can cost a fee plus interest from the first day, on top of the machine.
8. If the pad says cashless, Salt, or cash back, ask what hits the account and what you get back. No clear answer, no PIN.

Cash in a parking lot is its own problem. Licensed shops have cameras and a door person because the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency requires a security plan.

The risky minute is the walk to the car with a wad of bills. Do not count it in the lot.

The longer safety note lives in why the shop is still cash.

If you would rather skip the lobby, the mail-order shop is the other door. A 1 gram pre-roll is $7.50, an eighth is $20, and the 20-pack is 20 one-gram joints for $120.

No counter, no shop ATM, no round-up speech.

Why Is the Counter Still on Cash? #

Banks still treat cannabis money as a federal problem, so many Michigan dispensaries cannot run a normal card like a grocery store.

That's why the machine sits in the corner.

FinCEN, the federal anti-money-laundering bureau, told banks in 2014 how to file paperwork if they chose to serve marijuana businesses.

The memo did not make Visa or Mastercard treat a dispensary like any other store. Michigan legalization did not rewrite that federal split.

The long version is in two posts. Why your dispensary is still cash-only has the 2026 picture, including what a cashless pad is. Cannabis banking and the cash-only counter is the earlier explainer.

FAQ #

On a small adult-use buy, the ATM can cost more than the tax, and your own bank's machine is often free.

How much does a Michigan dispensary ATM charge? #

There is no single dispensary ATM fee, and this page will not invent one.

Bankrate's September 10, 2025 study put the average ATM-owner surcharge at $3.22 nationwide. The surcharge plus the out-of-network fee averaged $4.86 for bank ATMs.

A dispensary machine can sit above or below that. Trust the number on the screen before you press yes.

Do I pay my bank on top of the machine? #

Often yes, and the two fees are separate.

The average fee from your own bank for leaving its network was $1.64 in that same 2025 study. In 39 percent of cases the bank charges $0.

If yours charges, add it to the surcharge. Bankrate's published total of those two averages is $4.86.

Is the Detroit fee higher than the national fee? #

Bankrate's Detroit metro combined average was $5.25, versus $4.86 nationwide, among 25 big-city bank-ATM samples.

It ranked fourth, behind Atlanta ($5.37), Phoenix ($5.35), and San Diego ($5.31). The study did not survey cannabis shops.

Use it as the local cost of being out of network, then read the shop screen.

Does the ATM fee cost more than the cannabis tax? #

It can, on a small adult-use buy, once both fees hit.

A $20 sticker produces $2.00 of excise tax and $1.32 of sales tax under Treasury's stacking example, for $3.32.

The $4.86 combined ATM average is higher. A $40 sticker produces $6.64 of receipt tax, and the tax is higher.

Surcharge-only at $3.22 loses to the $20 tax by ten cents.

What is a cashless ATM? #

It is a card terminal that sends a weed purchase through as an ATM withdrawal, often for a rounded dollar amount.

Marijuana Moment reported Visa's December 2, 2021 memo. It said no cash is dispensed, and the amount is often rounded up so it looks like a cash withdrawal.

Ask what leaves your account and what cash you get back. A fee is the money you never see again.

What does Salt charge for a cashless ATM? #

Salt does not publish a customer fee.

Its pricing page says it offers cashless debit for dispensaries. Rates are custom quotes to the shop, with no public rate card. If Salt is the name on the pad, the fee is the amount that pad shows you.

There is no national Salt number to memorize.

Can I use a credit card at the dispensary ATM? #

You can sometimes, and it is a bad way to buy a jar.

The CFPB treats ATM cash from a credit card as a cash advance: a fee, interest that starts right away, often a higher rate, and possibly the ATM surcharge too.

A purchase grace period generally does not apply. Use a debit withdrawal from a bank account, or cash you already hold.

Do medical patients pay the same tax next to the same ATM fee? #

A qualifying medical sale skips the 10 percent excise tax. The ATM fee stays the same.

That comes from RAB 2023-25.

A $20 medical price before tax is about $1.20 in 6 percent sales tax. Next to a $3.22 or $4.86 ATM hit, the machine is the large line.

The shop still has to be able to show the sale was medical.

Is the 24 percent wholesale tax part of the ATM fee? #

No.

The wholesaler owes the wholesale tax starting January 1, 2026. Treasury says the wholesaler may collect it from the retailer.

Compare the ATM with the 10 percent and the 6 percent on your adult-use receipt. The 24 percent tax post covers the wholesale side.

Can I cancel after I see the fee? #

Yes.

12 CFR 1005.16 says the operator must show the fee and the amount before you commit, on the screen or on paper.

Cancel if the number is worse than driving back to your own ATM. That rule covers the operator's fee only. Your bank can still charge its own out-of-network fee later if the account says so.

What is the cheapest way to pay at a dispensary? #

Cash you withdrew in network, for the exact total including tax, in one trip.

That's $0 in ATM fees if your bank doesn't charge its own customers. The next cheapest is a bank that reimburses surcharges.

The expensive paths are a second withdrawal, a cashless round-up you do not get back, and a credit-card cash advance.

Did the card networks actually ban the debit button? #

They banned the disguise, and then Mastercard told banks to drop cannabis debit.

Visa's December 2, 2021 memo banned coding a purchase as an ATM cash withdrawal. Mastercard's July 26, 2023 instruction told institutions to terminate cannabis activity on its debit network, per Reuters and Cannabis Business Times.

A button can still be on a counter, and the network can still shut it off.

What to Do With the Fee #

Bring the out-the-door cash, or skip the counter.

If your night is one gram, a $7.50 pre-roll plus about $1.25 of adult-use tax is a small ticket. A $4.86 ATM hit blows that up.

If the basket is heavier, run the table. By $40 of sticker, the receipt tax is $6.64. That is past the average ATM charge.

Divine Toke is the mail-order door. Sun-grown flower, living soil, 1 gram pre-rolls, and a 20-pack that is 20 of those grams for $120.

No storefront and no street address, so you never stand at a cashless pad.

Want more on the pieces? Read banking and the cash-only counter, the 24 percent wholesale tax, and the gram versus eighth math.

This is shopper math for a Michigan receipt. It is not tax advice for a dispensary, and your bank may not charge the average.