LONDON -- Consumers will pay nearly £43 million (about $70 million U.S.) in ATM charges this year, despite an agreement by major banks to drop fees for cash withdrawals, according to a report in The Guardian.
The Guardian report cited research by Sainsbury's Bank that indicates approximately 34 million cash withdrawals will be made from some 11,000 ATMs that apply surcharges in 2003. All together, ATM users will pay more than £42.6 million in charges, according to the research.
The machines, run by independent operators, are all members of the Link network. A campaign by the Co-op Bank and Nationwide three years ago forced bank members of Link to scrap charges.
However, independent ATM suppliers, including CardPoint, Hanco, InfoCash, Inkas and Moneybox all assess user fees. Alliance & Leicester also imposes charges at some machines operated for third parties, according to the Guardian.
