ATM ‘charges’ to weigh heavy on consumers’ pockets |
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Fri, 25 Mar 2005 01:00
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The National Consumer Council brought to notice the new path cash machines had taken to make money. About 40 % ATMs were found charging a withdrawal fee to customers with a single withdrawal costing about £1.50 on an average.
The NCC expressed concern for limited income groups as this surcharge was especially disastrous for people operating out of shoe-string budgets. Even worse, most rural areas were seen sporting more fee-charging machines than free ones. Philip Cullum, CEO of NCC added that the poor were really in for big trouble since they usually made several withdrawals in a month to manage their income on a regular basis. This only implied hefty withdrawal charges to be paid every month.
| Besides, inconveniences like closures, strikes, long distances etc. that were attached to withdrawing money from banks or post offices often left consumers with only the ATM choice. Therefore, it was imperative to allow free ATM withdrawals for consumers with limited access to banks and post offices.
According to Nationwide, the rate at which these fee charging machines were increasing only signaled their dominance over free ATM’s by the close of this year. However, even free machines registered an increase in number over the year, although at a lower rate than the fee charging ones.
About 60 % of the priced ATMs were found in pubs. Having said that, Benny Higgins, retail banking head at Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest maintained that consumers were being offered both “choice and convenience” and the use of priced ATMs in spite of the availability of free cash machines outside indicated just that.
The report on cash machine charges will be published next week on Thursday, by the Treasury Select Committee.
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