How important is it to have access to a cash machine? Have your 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 48 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.
More than three-fifths of all bank branches have shut since 2015, concerning new figures have revealed.
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 them increasingly without access to free cash.
The impact on local communities can be devastating, Which? warns, with some of the most vulnerable members of society either unable or unwilling to make the switch to banking digitally.
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.
This led to the announcement last week of 15 new banking hubs across England and Wales to ensure people keep access to cash machines after banks or building societies announce closures or other changes to services.
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.
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the UK's ATM network, people in the UK withdrew £81bn from cash machines in 2023, only slightly lower than the £83bn withdrawn in 2022.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.
Recent IT outages have also underlined the danger of cutting cash out of the circulation completely. Earlier this month, Lloyds and NatWest banks were among those forced to apologise, after many small businesses were unable to process card payments and instead had to ask their customers to resort to cash. A similar situation occurred in July when shoppers were unable to make contactless payments in shops such as Sainsbury's and Asda.
Highlighting the problem, the Association of Convenience Stores revealed last year that the number of free-to-use ATMs had fallen from more than 53,000 in 2018 to about 37,800.
Sam Richardson, deputy editor of Which? Money, said: “Bank branch closures can have severe impacts on local communities, including on those who still want to use cash. Banking hubs will play a key role in replacing shuttered branches, but their rollout remains far too slow for consumers to feel their benefits."
It all illustrates that there is still a place for the humble cash machine for many people, but how often do you visit one? And how important to you is that the ability to access cash remains?
Let us know in the polls below.
Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis.
Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
