Directly

Create "ATM withdrawal over $1" alert via your bank's website and set your alert e-mail address to yournumber@yourcarrier.com (format will vary depending on your carrier, number@mms.att.net is an example of how it works for ATT/Cingular).

Forward

Create the alert, have it delivered to the e-mail address of your choice, and then create a forwarding rule for the alerts that will pass them onto yournumber@yourcarrier.com.

[Slightly modified repost of a recent comment I left on a similar story @ LifeHacker]

well the idea of text message is great it can also go bad. For example you loose your phone,change your number and forget to update or someone in a not so good relationship is reading your text and minding your business. Now some one has your personal info and customers have another reason to complain. It seems like more hassle then its worth.

I realize NetSpend is probably not one of Consumerists' favorite companies, but there you have it. They have it, it works great, have a nice day.

WaMu offers this service. I have set my checking and savings accounts to text message me whenever there is a withdrawl from either account. Although I like your idea of having the ATM location and transaction number included in the information.

I set up some daily balance and low balance alerts. Thanks.

Chris, I'd patent that idea. That is an amazingly great idea! I'd set that up on my cell (since I always have it with me) to keep a closer eye on my bank account if it was available.

But in fact, they prefer to have inaccurate data, and then try to charge me a fee for monitoring for problems and correcting them.

Security Alerts
A bill payment exceeds ($ USD) .
A debit card transaction exceeds ($ USD) .
A wire transfer exceeds ($ USD) .
An ATM withdrawal exceeds ($ USD) .
An external transfer exceeds ($ USD) .
An overnight check exceeds ($ USD) .
Incoming wire transfer exceeds ($ USD) .
My mailing address has changed.

Daily Alerts
A direct deposit greater than ($ USD) has posted to this account.
A payee has been added to my online bill payment profile.
An ATM deposit has posted to this account.
An overdraft protection advance was made to this account.
Any scheduled online repeating payment series has ended.
Check (#number) has posted.
Daily account summary for this account, including transaction details, total deposits, withdrawals and end of day balance.
Funds previously deposited to your account have been returned.
It is three bank business days prior to the payment date of an upcoming scheduled bill payment.
My account is overdrawn.
My balance is above ($ USD) for this account.
My balance is below ($ USD) for this account.
There is ATM card activity on this account of more than ($ USD) .
Your check or payment may not be completed because there's not enough money in your account.

And receiving a text message for everything you buy would be uber annoying.

Mint.com already offers this for transactions higher than a limit you set.

If banks offer it, they'll manage to mangle it, offer poor service and charge for it. It would be better if banks were just providing deposit/withdrawal and no other 'features', that would be less opportunities to rip people off.

Additionally I often use <cellnumber>@<providerdomain>.com to let me send text messages to my phone from my e-mail account, so as long as you have e-mail alerts you can get them as texts as well.

I'm not so sure about the ATM idea, because I think most people would just tune it out after the first few times; especially after the bank inevitably began using the feature as an excuse to serve ads. Also, since wireless networks are anything but secure, something feels odd about someone being able to know how much I'm withdrawing from my account, and - since the message is disclosing the location of said withdrawal - where I am at any given moment.

Maybe I'm just projecting my hate & distrust of Bank of America onto every banking entity on the planet....

Hmmmm.

Costs money?

And then the sonofabytch will have my cell phone number to send me valuable service related messages (aka Ads).

Bad idea. Bad idea.

because it will cost them money to do so. Of course... IF they did do this... they'd probably create a fee for the service that charges twice what their costs were.