Cashpoints in rural areas ‘are scrapped every second day’

A RURAL cashpoint is being closed every other day despite a pledge to keep them open, new figures show.

Data from Link, the UK’S cash machine network, has raised fresh fears over access to cash in remote areas as 76 “protected” ATMS closed between February and July this year.

This is despite a pledge by Link to keep them open to avoid businesses struggling and consumers having to travel miles just to access their own money.

A protected ATM is one that is more than 0.62 miles from any other, and its

existence helps to maintain access to cash in remote areas. The Payment Systems Regulator, which regulates Link, has asked it to review the closure of protected cashpoints, and consider whether they can be replaced where needed, with a view to replacing them as quickly as possible.

Free-to-use ATMS are vanishing at a rate of more than 250 per month, the figures showed. Link’s figures showed a 1,300 fall in the number of free-to-use ATMS between the end of January and the start of July, taking the total to 53,200. It has committed to maintain the broad geographical coverage of the ATM network and to publish data on progress. It said the number of machines has grown quickly in recent years, at a time when cash use has been declining and the vast majority of closures have been in busy, concentrated areas. Jenni Allen, managing director of Which? Money, said: “The rate at which free-to-use cashpoints are closing is alarming.”

She said the regulator “must now urgently intervene to stop further closures and ensure that no more consumers are suddenly stripped of their access to cash”.

Nicky Morgan, the chairman of the Treasury committee, said: “These protected ATMS will represent the only feasible means of accessing cash for many people, so this is a worrying trend.

“The PSR is rightly concerned by the closures, but I fear its regulatory intervention may be too little, too late.

“It must ensure that Link is held to its commitment to maintain the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMS.”

‘Regulator must urgently intervene to ensure that no more consumers are stripped of access to cash’