Local shops urge action to save cash machines

[dutchman]

Tens of thousands of people now have no local cash machines and the problem is getting worse, says the Association of Convenience Stores



Because of fewer bank branches and the decline in free-to-use ATMs, many people rely on their local shop to withdraw cash, the ACS says.

But with the Link network cutting the fees it pays to cash machine operators, more of them are disappearing, it says.

Link must act to preserve access to cash in local communities, it adds.

If Link does not respond by reversing the cuts in fees, the government should intervene to ensure that access to cash is protected, the ACS says.

"For millions of people, their local shop is now the only place where access to cash is available, especially as more than a third of bank branches have retreated from High Streets, towns and villages in the last five years," it added.

One shopkeeper, Sunder Sandher, who runs a One Stop convenience store in Leamington Spa, said he had agreed to pay his cash machine provider £200 a month to keep it free-to-use after the firm tried to impose a charge, but he saw it as a service to customers.

"I serve the local community," he told the BBC. "I had to keep it free-to-use because I was losing sales."

Since the start of 2018, Link has reduced the interchange rate - the amount it pays per withdrawal to the operators of cash machines.

As a result, the ACS said, the number of free-to-use ATMs had gone down by 13% between January 2018 and September 2019.

"Overall, one in 10 cash machines have been lost or moved to a pay-to-use model, denying people free access to their cash," the ACS said.