Have cash, will spend

Tuesday, 04 July 2006 12:00

Britons spend far more after visiting a cash machine in a shop.

New figures from Link - who run the UK's cash machine network - show that UK residents spend on average 65 per cent more in shops after visiting an ATM.

While the average customer spends just £5.64 each time they visit a convenience store, this figure jumps to £8.99 if they have just taken money out.

And not only do people spend more, Britons are increasingly expecting such shops to have a cash machine in them.

More than two Britons in three (68 per cent) assume ATMs will be provided in shops, and one person in ten says they would shop elsewhere if a cash machine was removed.

And despite consistent warnings about the impact of charging cash machines - the vast majority of Britons are getting access to their cash for free.

Link statistics show free cash machines do 15 to 20 times more business than the average charging machine.

"The scales could be tipping further in favour of the landlord who chooses a free machine: while the average number of transactions at free cash machines has risen over the past years, the average number of transactions at surcharging cash machines as fallen," Link points out.

In the last five years some 12,000 more cash machines have come online, with some 33,100 free-to-use ATMs now in operation in the UK.

And with record numbers of free cash machines, some 96 per cent of withdrawals are from ATMs that do not charge.

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