Background: Banking transactions are becoming
increasingly automated, hand in hand with the
progress of technology. Since in recent years,
pensions are paid to pensioners through bank
accounts, they have to be familiar with the services
provided by banks through ACMs. However, elderly
people are not usually familiar with new
technologies and this creates difficulties in the use of
ACMs.
Aims of the study: To get information about the
knowledge of the members of Open Care for the
Elderly Centres with respect to ACMs, as well as to
find out to what extent they use ACM banking
services. Methodology: The participants were 204
members of nine Open Care for the Elderly Centres
situated in the greater Athens area. An anonymous
specially designed 15‐item‐questionnaire, including
two scales, was used for eliciting information from
the participants. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.76
for the first scale to 0.79 for the second scale. All
statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS for
Windows (Release 11). Results: 79 of the
participants (38.7%) stated that they had no idea
about ACMs and only 12 (5.9%) stated that they
were aware of all the banking services available
through ACMs. Regarding the actual use of ACMs, the
majority of the participants (n=118, 57.8%) never
used ACMs, not even for money withdrawal, while
the number of users for other services is even lower.
Regarding the reasons that prevented them from
using ACMs, only 100 (49%) answered the question
and 82 subjects (40.2% of the total sample) stated
that they did not know how to use them. Only 20
(19%) of the participants stated that they never
faced any difficulty in using ACMs. 145 (73.2%) of
all participants stated that a practical leaflet
describing step by step how to use ACMs would be
helpful. The regression analysis applied revealed
that age is negatively correlated with knowledge
and use of ACMs, while education is positively
correlated with knowledge and use of ACMs.
Conclusions: In conclusion, more frequent use of
ACMs can be achieved by familiarizing customers
with ACMs, by way of systematic information
initiatives, special training programs, adapting ACMs
to the specific needs of the elderly and by providing
for easy and comfortable access to them.