Cash machines reign supreme
May 21, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
The way we carry out our banking and, in particular, the way we get our cash has changed radically in the last ten years.
New research by the UK payments association Apacs has found that cash machine withdrawals nearly doubled between 1996 and 2006.
Ten years ago, only 34 per cent of our cash demands were met by cash machines, while in 2006 that figure stood at 65 per cent.
In addition, other card-based withdrawals, including cashback and over-the-counter transactions, have also grown, from eight per cent in 1996 to 12 per cent in 2006.
The total amount of money withdrawn from cash machines hit £180 billion last year, growing from £80 billion ten years previous, with Sandra Quinn from Apacs putting the shift down to a change in attitudes.
“On the supply side, there has been a steady trend by business and government away from the payment of wages and state benefits by cash and a huge growth in the number and accessibility of cash machines,” she said.
“There is now a massive number of cash machines in the UK – over 60,000 in total. Demographic trends have also shaped the pattern of cash acquisition; in 2006 for the first time, more than half of over 65s are regular users of cash machines.”
Experts predict that the trend will continue with 81 per cent of our cash coming from a ‘hole in the wall’ in 2016.
