Now 1,500 cashpoints could vanish from pubs and shops
PUBS and small shops could lose up to 1,500 free cash machines because of a dispute over fees.
Banks are demanding a reduction in the levy they pay when their customers use ATMs run by independent operators.
And Cardtronics, the country’s biggest provider, says this would make many machines in rural areas unprofitable.
Sources said the firm could be forced to shut 1,500 ATMs, with pubs at particular risk. These cashpoints are vital to smaller communities that have lost their lost bank branches and shops.
The Link network, which oversees the country’s 55,000 free machines, has launched a consultation on cutting fees by 20 per cent over four years.
Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are at the forefront of the push for to close some of our machines due lower charges. They have shut to the prospect of lower Link hundreds of branches over the interchange payments,’ he said. past few years, with RBS announcing ‘Should Link’s proposals to slash another 259 this month. interchange be implemented in
In the year to October, they have their entirety, the free-to-use ATM also closed or given up control of model in the UK will become 1,463 ATMs between them to save unsustainable. money. Both insist they will not ‘Cardtronics UK will be forced to abandon towns and villages when convert a much more significant they shut down branches. number of currently viable freeto
But a spokesman for Cardtronicsuse ATMs to pay-to-use or even warned that free ATMs could remove ATM sites altogether. disappear completely if the banks ‘This will be especially true for get their way on fees. ‘We can confirm rural communities where operating that there are specific plans costs are often higher than in densely populated urban areas, regardless of the type of location, be that pubs, local shops or street kiosks.’
The spokesman added that new plastic bank notes and the need for software upgrades have been driving costs up at the same times as the fee cut looms.
There are fears the plan could devastate high streets. Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, has said it is ‘difficult to see’ how the free ATM network can be maintained after a fee cut. Consumer watchdog Which? has called on the Payments Systems Regulator to take action. It said it had ‘ significant concerns’ about the impact on customers of closures, with 2.7million people almost entirely dependent on cash.
Gareth Shaw of Which? said: ‘Significantly reducing this network could have a real impact on consumers, who might be left struggling to access the cash they need – and so we must see scrutiny from the regulator.’
Link did not respond last night to a request for comment. Figures previously published by the Mail showed the number of ATMs owned by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Natwest has dropped from around 19,417 since October last year to 17,461 a year later.
RBS- owned Natwest was the biggest offender, scrapping 740 machines in the period, either by closing them or handing them over to other operators when contracts with the shops hosting them came to an end. Lloyds has got rid of 723 machines, while HSBC reduced its network by 347 over the year. Barclays ditched 146 ATMs.