COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Withdrawing cash while shopping is becoming increasingly popular with consumers in Germany. The total volume of withdrawals rose by a good 20 percent to 12.31 billion euros last year, according to a study published on Wednesday by the Cologne-based retail research institute EHI. "It's convenient for customers because it saves them extra trips. Demand is also increasing due to the declining number of ATMs," said study author Horst Rüter.

According to the study, the companies offering ATMs, which include food retailers Rewe and Edeka, drugstores such as DM and Rossmann and DIY stores, return more than 13% of the cash they collect to their customers. As usage increases, so do the fees that companies have to pay to banks. According to EHI, these are between 0.1 and 0.2 percent of the amount paid out per transaction. As a result, retailers paid 17.23 million euros last year, 25.7 percent more than in the previous year.

The cash payment service was introduced by the first retailers around 20 years ago. Its use and prevalence have increased rapidly since then. In 2019, the volume of cash withdrawals amounted to 2.23 billion euros. The study includes data from around 420 companies with 100,000 businesses from 35 sectors./cr/DP/zb