Men feast on cash while women nibble

Monday, 14 August 2006 12:00

Men are far more likely to take out large amounts of cash than women, which they then spend on their wives and girlfriends.

New figures from Link show that there are two distinct types of cash machine user.

One group visits ATMs around once a week and withdraws more than £100 each time ("feaster"). The other sort visits cash machines two or three times a week, taking out no more than £30 ("nibbler").

And it is men that dominate the first group - being twice as likely to be a 'feaster' than women.

Men are also more likely to carry large quantities of cash around with them than women.

Some 52 per cent of men carry more than £20 around with them, compared with 37 per cent of women. Additionally, while just one woman in 20 carries between £50 and £100 around with them, 12 per cent of men do.

However, there might be a simple explanation for this discrepancy; when asked, 72 per cent of the men that carried large amounts of cash around with them said they needed it to pay for their wife or girlfriend.

But while men take more money out of cash machines and carry more cash on them, they are also the most likely to run out of money.

While one Briton in five of both sexes has visited a cash point more than three times in one evening, and a third have borrowed more money from friends on a night out, men are three times more likely to drunkenly visit an ATM and then not remember it in the morning.

One man in eight admits to having done this, compared with just one woman in 25.

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• atm machines
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• bank accounts
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• household
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• news
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• spending habits