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Free-to-use ATMs vital to Scottish public, UK watchdog group says

May 4, 2018

A new survey by the U.K. watchdog group Which? shows that people and businesses in Scotland still rely heavily on free-to-use ATMs, and would be harmed by the LINK Network's plan to reduce surcharge fees paid to ATM operators, which could, in turn, bring about a 20 percent reduction in the number of fee-free ATMs across the U.K.

 In a recent survey by the organization, 89 percent of Scottish people said that free cash machines are important to their everyday lives. Of these, 51 percent said they are essential for day-to-day living. This number was similar across all age groups, a press release said.

Additional findings from the survey:

• 62 percent of respondents said they use a cash machine once a week or more.
• 19 percent of respondents in rural Scottish communities said that their nearest free-to-use cash machine was already too far away to walk to, compared with 3 percent in urban areas.
• 14 percent said that it currently takes at least half an hour to reach their nearest cash point.
• 8 percent had used a fee-charging cash machine in the last month; of these 31 percent did so because they couldn't find a free-to-use option.
• Among the general public in Scotland, 22 percent of survey respondents said they would be less likely to use local shops that require them to pay in cash and 16 percent said this would affect their ability to pay for products and services.

The U.K.'s Federation of Small Businesses is calling for the Payment Systems Regulator to intervene and review the implications of the LINK ATM surcharge reduction, which is to be implemented over four years, starting in July.

LINK has said it will encourage operators to protect free-to-use ATMs that are a kilometer or more from the next nearest free cash machine. Cardtronics U.K. has said that those hit hardest will be rural communities.

Which? surveyed 1854 members of the Scottish public between April 16 and April 23.