Are ATMs disappearing?

[adrianw]

I had to get some cash yesterday and ended up queuing, when it was my turn I found that the machine only gave out a maximum of £250. Until recently there was a Barclays with ATM (now gone) Tesco had three (now one) and all gave out £500.

Is this part of the push for digital currency I keep reading about?

[Dave E]

As far as I can see, yes. I live just outside Buckingham, which is a town of nearly 13,000 people. Last bank in the town closed earlier this year, and their cashpoint went with them. There is apparently one in the Post Office, and another at Waitrose, but I'm not sure if they are free or not. Tesco at the edge of town used to have 2, they now only have 1 (and don't do cashback at the tills anymore). 5 years ago, we still had 3 or 4 bank branches, all with a cashpoint outside (and the ability to draw cash at the counter), plus two at the Tesco, etc. To be fair, I don't often use cash these days, but it's getting increasingly tricky to get some when I do need it.

[petethegeek]

It would appear that demand for the product is diminishing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65249034

[Alansmithee]

I had to get some cash yesterday and ended up queuing, when it was my turn I found that the machine only gave out a maximum of £250. Until recently there was a Barclays with ATM (now gone) Tesco had three (now one) and all gave out £500.

Is this part of the push for digital currency I keep reading about?

It's a side-effect of it - as more and more people become cashless the networks become more expensive to run. I don't use cash at all anymore and haven't for nearly three years.

[gunner]

I'd happily go without cash but some things require it. Conscious decision to go and get some every couple of weeks now.

[Rod]

I haven't used cash in ages, I appreciate the elderly can't use on line banking easily therefore need cash more frequently.
It is a problem for a lot of people but some supermarkets will give cash and some have ATMs.

[wileeeeeey]

I had to get £500 out recently and got 2x250. Machine wouldn’t give 500 in one go.

I use card mostly but don’t understand people who don’t carry cash. How do you buy a kebab?!

[jukeboxs]

...
Is this part of the push for digital currency I keep reading about?

Why not go to the source and ask the banks if you're that interested. I've not had any ATM problems.

[Mick P]

Cash is dying on its feet and to be honest we don't really need it other than the real oldies who don't own a PC / Mobile phone.

I took £200 out of my account sometime in January 2021 and I still got £80 left. It's an anachronism.

[Chicken Pox]

I had to get some cash yesterday and ended up queuing, when it was my turn I found that the machine only gave out a maximum of £250. Until recently there was a Barclays with ATM (now gone) Tesco had three (now one) and all gave out £500.

Is this part of the push for digital currency I keep reading about?

There was a spate of them ending up buried on caravan sites, but if the bank goes they don't want the cost of running of them. There used to be 7 at our local shops, 4 went with the banks that left, now 1 at McColl's, 1 at Sainsbury's Petrol station/ Local shop, and the other at Tesco Local. It's more of the pain if you want to actually talk to someone rather than cash that is the pain around here, or get a cheque that's too big to scan in via app.

[eletos]

Banks must love cashless. Every transaction they take slice from the retailer, less cash in the system must mean reduced handling costs. Got to be a win-win for them.


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[SydR]

I was walking through town earlier and happened to notice several retail and hospitality outlets with signs up saying they no longer accept cash.

[xxnick1975]

We are sleep walking into cashless society, which is highly alarming.

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[MartynJC (UK)]

Cash is alive here. If taking a holiday in EU be prepared for this - there are multiple cashpoints in the tourist areas. One small town near us has one every 300metres. Nearly every supermarket has a cash machine.

MultiBanco is well established here in Portugal - where you can do all your banking (pay bills to finances, transfers, pay motor tolls, buy cinema tickets - even take out cash). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multibanco via the machines and can't see that going away soon - the Portuguese are quite traditional. But in other ways the opposite is true. You can hardly do anything without a Portuguese phone number which is linked to your name and address etc. and certainly nothing official without declaring your fiscal number (similar to NI number). You are obliged to carry your ID with you (and can be fined on the spot if you have none).

Many restaurants here only take cash and also sole traders prefer it. I think partly a spinoff of the government here seeking control and monitoring and every 6 months introducing new (crippling) trading laws and further regulations which has backfired. I'll say no more, as politics is for the BP.

[Alansmithee]

I was walking through town earlier and happened to notice several retail and hospitality outlets with signs up saying they no longer accept cash.

I helped my niece set up her own business a couple of years ago - she has never taken cash - why would she?

* Nearest bank is 30 minutes each way
* Security
* Payments are all electronic so easier to track, provide receipt of payment and do end of year accounts.

[adrianw]

I had to get £500 out recently and got 2x250. Machine wouldn’t give 500 in one go.

I use card mostly but don’t understand people who don’t carry cash. How do you buy a kebab?!

Exactly

[MartynJC (UK)]

...or get a cheque that's too big to scan in via app.

Surely you can post the cheque to your bank - but I hear that's gone over £1 to post so that's a surcharge

[Dean Learner]

Was in a bank branch a couple of years back depositing some cheques (another antiquated system) and while there a number of customers came in looking for an ATM or to withdraw cash from a teller and were informed "sorry, this is a cashless branch, you'll have to go elsewhere"

Blew my mind, not even the bank was wanting to deal with cash. Truly a sign cash has limited time left.

[Montello]

The black economy is being shut down.

Cash is a pain these days. The days of cash discount are over.

[TheTigerUK]

The days of "do I get a discount for cash ?" and fiddling the tax man are perhaps on the way out.

[number2]

I never really thought about it like this before...

[adrianw]

The black economy is being shut down.

Cash is a pain these days. The days of cash discount are over.

They have had a good go at shutting down the Black economy in Spain all cash transactions are now capped at 1000 euros, prior to this houses and cars would be cash at the right price,

[Alansmithee]

I never really thought about it like this before...

No car boot sales - sign me up!

[snowman]

It's a side-effect of it - as more and more people become cashless the networks become more expensive to run. I don't use cash at all anymore and haven't for nearly three years.

I've got 6 pound coins in my pocket. I've had them for 3 weeks... It's rare I use cash anymore, although Wraysbury Dive Centre insists on it (which is why I have it!)

Anyone know what Germany is like these days? I'm off there in a few weeks, should I get a few hundred Euros or do they accept cards widely now?

M

[Michael 38]

I was in looe in Cornwall a few years back and in the middle of holiday season they only had one atm working in the town and that only gave out 50 pound notes which none of the shops accepted

[Kingstepper]

I was in looe in Cornwall a few years back and in the middle of holiday season they only had one atm working in the town and that only gave out 50 pound notes which none of the shops accepted

Love it.

Never had a £50 in my life.

[kevkojak]

Not especially related to cash machines, but I was on a stag do some weeks back and we had booked a minibus into Manchester. The driver mentioned it was cash only for payment and of the 14 of us I was the only one carrying enough cash to pay! A few of the lads had £10/£20 on them but literally just "walking around" money. Everyone pinged me their share of payment, which I promptly drew out of the next ATM to top up my wallet.

I'm absolutely not averse to technology, but the thought of being totally reliant on online banking and a card terrifies me. I would never ever go out without enough cash on me to pay for drinks or a meal.

That said - as mentioned above, a lot of bars we went to were cashless, even to the extent of a wireless payment sensor on the pool table!

[Michael 38]

Me and the mrs still tip in cash to the server in restaurants to make sure they get it and stop the restaurant taking a cut

[Boss13]

I’m all for cashless in most situations.
I think I have a ten pound note scrunched up somewhere in my jacket pocket. But otherwise I go out without any cash or even a wallet.
Use my phone for payment for everything.
If I’m going to make a large purchase I will take a card with me in case the retailer doesn’t take Apple Pay. But never had a big issue.
Paid for watches and even cars using Apple Pay.

The poster above about things you can’t do without cash not all true, when people want your money they will need to move with the times. Even tiny shops and instrument players etc I have seen with little contactless devices to take your money. I agree it’s a little weird but best to embrace it I say.

[Passenger]

Not especially related to cash machines, but I was on a stag do some weeks back and we had booked a minibus into Manchester. The driver mentioned it was cash only for payment and of the 14 of us I was the only one carrying enough cash to pay! A few of the lads had £10/£20 on them but literally just "walking around" money. Everyone pinged me their share of payment, which I promptly drew out of the next ATM to top up my wallet.

I'm absolutely not averse to technology, but the thought of being totally reliant on online banking and a card terrifies me. I would never ever go out without enough cash on me to pay for drinks or a meal.

That said - as mentioned above, a lot of bars we went to were cashless, even to the extent of a wireless payment sensor on the pool table!

Yup feel same, like some walking around cash in my wallet.

I don't want to have to carry a phone, haven't for over a decade now, so that method is out...basically the smaller my electronic footprint, the happier I'll..don't see why my purchasing habits/ lifestyle should be available for some other buggers to mine/analyse, profit from, used to try and sell me more shizz, probably I'm fighting a losing, quixotic battle... it's my money, earned and taxed, and what I chose to do with it is my business...

''Instrument players'', would that be buskers? Hell if they don´t want to accept cash, legal tender, tough but sod ém frankly.

[kevkojak]

Me and the mrs still tip in cash to the server in restaurants to make sure they get it and stop the restaurant taking a cut

That's become a major gripe of mine - restaurants putting on a 10 or 12% service charge (a forced gratuity, essentially) directly onto the bill.
I can definitely appreciate the appeal of pooling tips so the kitchen staff get a bit too, but in most cases I'm certain the restaurant just keep them. I've taken to asking for a bill with service charges removed and tip directly (again, in cash).

[Passenger]

That's become a major gripe of mine - restaurants putting on a 10 or 12% service charge (a forced gratuity, essentially) directly onto the bill.
I can definitely appreciate the appeal of pooling tips so the kitchen staff get a bit too, but in most cases I'm certain the restaurant just keep them. I've taken to asking for a bill with service charges removed and tip directly (again, in cash).

IF they add 10 or 12 percent service charge doesn´t it have to be acknowledged as optional, didn´t think it´s obligatory...It´s typically around 20 percent in the US at this point, but you generally get the sense the waitron is trying hard, too hard sometimes, to earn it.
Here we generally just leave some small change from the pocket, at our discretion.

[Speedyexplorer]

I always use cash and have some squirrelled away for when technology is not working how it should.
Not so long ago Shetland was cut off from the grid and only cash was accepted.
Concerns that Russia could cut us off from the grid which I think would mean only cash would be accepted until the cables were fixed.

https://bmmagazine.co.uk/news/shetla...sea-cable-cut/

[SydR]

The poster above about things you can’t do without cash not all true, when people want your money they will need to move with the times. Even tiny shops and instrument players etc I have seen with little contactless devices to take your money. I agree it’s a little weird but best to embrace it I say.

^^ This.

Non cash payments are cropping up in use cases from the smallest of enterprises and in some unexpected areas. The poppy sellers in Edinburgh last year had a QR code on the collection bucket that took you to a website where you could make a donation.

[xxnick1975]

Im sure there are alternative cashless solutions for everything.

What bothers me is the control this shift moves to private, unaccountable, overseas corporations.



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[pacifichrono]

Mine have dried up with the closure of three local branches of my bank.

[MartynJC (UK)]

I want my TEN POUNDS as in, "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten pounds", on the paper ten pound note. Lets get back to basics!

[Russ]

Cash was my career for 40 years. Working in the banking industry from 1979 for a major bank, it saw me through my entire working life. There's a lot to the industry that people don't see or hear about. I could talk about it all day. It will never go away but volumes have gone off a cliff. One of the challenges to the industry is how to scale the decline. A young man in an AD in Manchester sold me a watch last year. He told me he never carries cash. He goes out every day with his phone and never struggles to pay for anything. That's what pretty much everyone of his genetation is doing.

In 1999 it was predicted that every adult in the UK would want £200 in cash in their pocket on New Years Eve. The Banks had a massive project to meet the expected demand. Thousands of extra cash sacks were sent out to branches and staff were put in place to feed the machines they were going into. It took months to organise. I was involved and saw thousands of bags packed and sent out in special millennium bags. How many came back two weeks later? All of them except two. One was used and the other opened by mistake. The writing was on the wall then, it's only gone one way since.

[bloater]

My daughter makes cakes and cupcakes whilst at sixth form, to raise some extra money she has been doing car boot sales.
Still plenty of cash floating around there but she has also got a sum up machine but it's a small percentage.
She took £190 yesterday and £7 of it was on card the week before £150ish and £15 on card.

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[paule23]

We are sleep walking into cashless society, which is highly alarming.

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Why is it alarming?

[Passenger]

Cash was my career for 40 years. Working in the banking industry from 1979 for a major bank, it saw me through my entire working life. There's a lot to the industry that people don't see or hear about. I could talk about it all day. It will never go away but volumes have gone off a cliff. One of the challenges to the industry is how to scale the decline. A young man in an AD in Manchester sold me a watch last year. He told me he never carries cash. He goes out every day with his phone and never struggles to pay for anything. That's what pretty much everyone of his genetation is doing.

In 1999 it was predicted that every adult in the UK would want £200 in cash in their pocket on New Years Eve. The Banks had a massive project to meet the expected demand. Thousands of extra cash sacks were sent out to branches and staff were put in place to feed the machines they were going into. It took months to organise. I was involved and saw thousands of bags packed and sent out in special millennium bags. How many came back two weeks later? All of them except two. One was used and the other opened by mistake. The writing was on the wall then, it's only gone one way since.

If you don't mind me asking as you were at the coal face for 40 years..does electronic money change consumer behaviour? !s it easier for those seeking to sell us stuff to close the deal because the transaction is less conspicuous? What impact might this have on people getting into debt? Non stop consumption, a good- bad idea?
Just because the younger generation think something is a good idea does that automatically translate to a societal good? What are the cons of electronic money?

[wileeeeeey]

Possibly contentious but do we think not carrying cash is predominantly a white thing?

I have a family member with a takeaway in an area going through rapid gentrification and since the area got more white they've had to put up 3x more Cash Only signs and now remind white people who aren't regulars of this before ordering that it's cash only.

Apparently most other times the people who aren't regulars try and pay with card, are told it's cash only, and then just take cash out of their wallet instead.

Way too many white youngsters unable to pay, asking where the nearest cash points is, and then rarely come back for their food which ends up in the bin hence reminding one group that it's cash only before taking the order.

[Boss13]

I’m in a random WA group and just had the below message with zero context. Thought I’d post it here given the thread.

One for the conspiracy theorists maybe, but is this the sort of thing people are worried about?

[Russ]

If you don't mind me asking as you were at the coal face for 40 years..does electronic money change consumer behaviour? !s it easier for those seeking to sell us stuff to close the deal because the transaction is less conspicuous? What impact might this have on people getting into debt? Non stop consumption, a good- bad idea?
Just because the younger generation think something is a good idea does that automatically translate to a societal good? What are the cons of electronic money?

Yes I think behaviour has changed. It's easier to spend the money you have and also easier to spend money you don't have. But societal attitude to debt has changed too. Saving up has changed to have it now more than ever. Banks now compete to take on your credit card debt and will offer incentives to do so. In 1979 they would see it as a red flag and as such would not want your account. As staff, we were never allowed to go into the red. I watched as a 19 year old as a colleague was balled at for being overdrawn the day before pay day. How much by? 50p. Now 19 year olds sign up for thousands as they go to Uni. I wonder how many really stop and think of the hard reality. Back in the day you wrote cheques and if the money wasn't there they bounced. Banks acted as brakes on individual finances much more than now. At the moment it seems you can get yourself into trouble far more easily. One thing hasn't changed though, debt could bury you in Roman times and it still can now.

[Passenger]

Yes I think behaviour has changed. It's easier to spend the money you have and also easier to spend money you don't have. But societal attitude to debt has changed too. Saving up has changed to have it now more than ever. Banks now compete to take on your credit card debt and will offer incentives to do so. In 1979 they would see it as a red flag and as such would not want your account. As staff, we were never allowed to go into the red. I watched as a 19 year old as a colleague was balled at for being overdrawn the day before pay day. How much by? 50p. Now 19 year olds sign up for thousands as they go to Uni. I wonder how many really stop and think of the hard reality. Back in the day you wrote cheques and if the money wasn't there they bounced. Banks acted as brakes on individual finances much more than now. At the moment it seems you can get yourself into trouble far more easily. One thing hasn't changed though, debt could bury you in Roman times and it still can now.

Thank you for your considered response. Seems the researchers agree with you. I wonder about the ability/ opportunity for the coming generations who might've never handled real money to learn the basics about money and money management and who benefits from their ignorance, altered behaviour.

https://yle.fi/a/3-11168589

[Bluemoon7]

Im sure there are alternative cashless solutions for everything.

What bothers me is the control this shift moves to private, unaccountable, overseas corporations.



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What concerns me more is that every transaction benefits a bank financially and takes away from small businesses profits. Card payments are not free.

[Rod]

What concerns me more is that every transaction benefits a bank financially and takes away from small businesses profits. Card payments are not free.

On the plus side for them they don't have the risk of carrying money to a night safe or bank (if they can find one) risking a member of staff, or paying security services.

[RickChard]

I've not taken money from an ATM since before COVID. I've not used cash in as long as I can remember.

I see no issue with it - I've not run into any problems.

Those that think that is 'alarming', why?


*Edit, tell-a-lie, I used cash for a carwash as my normal place (which allows cashless payments) was closed

[RickChard]

Just to add, the transition I'm struggling with is no longer carrying bank cards!

Cash I've been without for years, but not carrying cards is tough, I feel a bit naked without! I've tried it a fair bit recently and I've inevitably been fine. All cards registered on my phone and been able to pay for everything I've needed with it.

Alarmingly my phone is my car key now too - so my pockets are practically empty now!!

[Jake]

On the plus side for them they don't have the risk of carrying money to a night safe or bank (if they can find one) risking a member of staff, or paying security services.

And they would’ve also had to pay a Cash Handling Charge circa 1%

Jake