How important is it to have access to a cash machine? Yahoo readers have their say

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we'll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

Just under a third of Yahoo readers still use cash machines on a weekly basis, as the debate over the move to a cashless society continues in the wake of concerning figures around bank branch closures.

Earlier this week new figures revealed that more than three-fifths of all bank branches have shut since 2015.

Analysis carried out by Which? showed that in Yorkshire and the Humber - the worst affected region - there are only 4.4 branches left per 100,000 people, meaning every resident shares it with 22,557 others. Barclays has closed the most branches (92) since January 2015 in the region, followed by HSBC (73) and NatWest (69).

The figures highlight fears that as society moves ever closer to a cashless society, those who are "digitally excluded" - such as older people, people in poor health, and those with lower financial resilience - find themselves increasingly without access to free cash.

In August 2023, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was granted new powers to ensure the vast majority of people are no further than three miles away from a cash machine, leading to the announcement last week of 15 new banking hubs across England and Wales.

According to data published in July by trade association UK Finance, the number of cash payments fell in 2023 by 7% to six billion payments, with cash making up 12% of all payments, down from 14% in 2022. The report said that 39% of UK adults lived "largely cashless lives" during 2023.

However, the figures also showed that the number of people using cash for day-to-day spending had reached a four-year high during the cost of living crisis, with 1.5 million people mainly using it for their spending, an increase from 1.7% of adults in 2022 to 2.6% in 2023.

Yahoo News UK asked our readers about their cash machine use, here are the results:

Our poll from Monday at midday until midday Thursday asked: 'How often do you use cash machines?'

It received 1,797 votes and showed just under a third (30%) of Yahoo readers use an ATM around once a week.

Some 22% of voters said they used one a few times a month, with 17% saying they use one multiple times a week. The next biggest proportion was those who use a cash machine once a month (14%), followed by 7% who said less than once a month, 6% every day, and 4% who never use a cash machine.

Yahoo News UK readers were also asked: 'How important is access to a cash machine for you?'

This poll received 1,745 votes with the most common vote being 10, indicating many readers felt access to a cash machine is very important.

The average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes was 8.89, this now tops our chart of the highest average scores and shows voters feel very strongly about the importance having access to cash machines.

According to Link, the UK's ATM network, people in the UK withdrew £81bn from cash machines in 2023, only slightly lower than the £83bn withdrawn in 2022. It said the average UK adult made 15 visits to a cash machine in 2023, withdrawing a total of £1,484.

Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles