By Sean Poulter for the Daily Mail
Published: 19:18 EST, 13 November 2019 | Updated: 19:23 EST, 13 November 2019
Hundreds of communities have little or no access to a ‘hole in the wall’ cash machine, creating hardship for thousands, say researchers.
People living in 259 postcode areas across the UK struggle to get hold of bank notes to carry out simple tasks such as buying a pint of milk or paying a bus fare, they found.
And the situation is set to get worse as Britain sleepwalks towards a cashless society.
Consumer group Which? said ATMs were closing at a rate of 578 a month in the first half of this year. This is creating a ‘cash desert’, which makes life particularly difficult for the elderly, who prefer to use cash, and small businesses.
Consumer group Which? said ATMs were closing at a rate of 578 a month in the first half of this year (pictured, areas with no cash machine)
Banks are pushing people to switch to plastic cards and smartphone apps, such as Apple Pay, rather than cash because it saves them a fortune in terms of handling, security, counting and transport costs.
They have made it increasingly difficult to access money by closing hundreds of branches, ripping the heart out of town centres and shopping streets. Research by Which? found that 130 postcode districts with a combined population of 115,741 do not have a single cashpoint and 36 of these do not have the safety net of a post office.
A further 129 communities have just one ATM and 84 of these impose a charge, typically around £1 but occasionally £2.
The area with the biggest population that does not have a cash machine is the Peterborough postcode district of PE32, where 15,294 people live.
This and other communities do have access to a post office, but these have restricted opening times whereas an ATM is open around the clock.
Which? has also identified the areas with the highest populations without a cashpoint or post office – meaning residents could be at risk of being cut off from ‘cash infrastructure’ entirely. These are led by the Aberdeen postcode of AB13 with a population of 2,725.
Banks are pushing people to switch to plastic cards and smartphone apps, such as Apple Pay (pictured, a 'hole in the wall' machine)
Industry figures show the total number of cash machines has fallen by around 6,700 over the past two years to 61,961. Which? said the main reason for this fall was a cut in the fees paid by banks to third party cash machine operators, which meant many of the ATMs were no longer economically viable.
The consumer group said the Government’s Payment Systems Regulator should take control of these cashpoint fees and ensure banks pay a fair figure to operators who run machines in ‘cash deserts’.
The Daily Mail has highlighted the continuing threat to cash machines and is campaigning to save rural post offices and the services they offer.
Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, said: ‘The countless communities across the UK with shockingly low cash-machine provision show that measures intended to guarantee access to cash simply don’t work – and point to mismanagement that is leaving many struggling.’
UK Finance, the collective voice for banking and finance firms, said it is supporting an initiative by LINK, which administers fees supporting the cash machine network, to install new ATMs in communities that flag up a need.
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