How much did you spend on ATM fees this month? Chances are, you guessed less than half the actual amount, according to research from Personetics.

The White Plains, N.Y.-based company, which focuses on the digital customer experience, recently conducted a study of behavior around ATM fees and found that 30% of all ATM withdrawals are subject to fees because they are made at out-of-network locations. Banks can help customers avoid out-of-network fees and increase transaction at their own ATMs with a few simple actions, according to Ido Ophir, vice president of product management at Personetics.

Customers visit ATMs an average of every 7 to 10 days, Personetics found, and utilize a mix of in-network and out-of-network machines. Out-of-network fees at ATMs have risen steeply to an average of $2.10 from $1.75 back in 2007, according to a study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Customers are generally willing to pay the fees because of convenience — that $2 fee is probably worth paying rather than walking two extra blocks, especially when it’s raining. But customers don’t even look for the nearest in-network ATM. Though ATM locators are nearly universal on mobile banking apps, Personetics found that fewer than half of customers have used them.

Personetics recommended that banks can do two significant things to help customers and themselves by guiding customers to in-network devices:

1. Deliver information at the right time to customers using predictive analytics. Banks can now know with approximately 85% accuracy when customers will next use the ATM, and message them beforehand to check for the nearest in-network machine. “ATM withdrawals follow a pattern,” Ophir said. “It is simple to send a helpful reminder in advance.”
2. Educate customers about the cost of out-of-network fees. When customers are asked to estimate ATM fees incurred on a monthly basis, the most common answer is less than half the actual cost. Banks can, therefore, include messages in the online or mobile banking experience, or on paper statements, indicating how much customers have paid over the past month on unnecessary fees. Ophir criticized solutions such as FeeAlert from Cardtronics, which pings users immediately after an out-of-network ATM purchase, as “annoying and not helpful.”

A third option is to waive or absorb ATM fees for premium account holders as a courtesy. Interestingly, users across all demographic groups behaved similarly with regard to ATM fees — that is, not very intelligently.

Learn more about what’s next in banking at Bank Innovation 2014 on March 3-4 in Seattle. Request an invitation here.