Cash back: ATM use rises as people use cash to budget with last branches in town seeing spikes of up to 154%

03 Jan 2024

Cash back: ATM use rises as people use cash to budget with last branches in town seeing spikes of up to 154%

• Cash usage rises for second year in a row with 31.4 million withdrawals made from Nationwide ATMs last year
• Competitor branch closures see average ATM usage increase 55% in towns where Nationwide is last branch in town
• Nationwide ATMs in Twickenham, Redruth and Purley see respective rises in withdrawals of 154%, 144% and 92%
• ATMs not just for withdrawals as nearly half of transactions for services such as mini-statements or paying bills

New data from Nationwide shows that cash usage continues to rise as many households respond to the cost-of-living crisis by budgeting with physical money. That data also shows where the building society is the last remaining branch in town, the growth in usage is at its most pronounced.

Unlike the major banks which have closed significant numbers of branches in recent years, Nationwide has reaffirmed its commitment to communities by continuing to offer face-to-face service. Nationwide's Branch Promise means everywhere it has a branch, it will remain until at least 2026.

Data from Britain's biggest building society reveals around 31.4 million cash withdrawals were made from its network of more than 1,200 ATMs last year - a four per cent increase on 2022. The average amount of cash taken out on each withdrawal from Nationwide ATMs was around £105 last year, an increase on the previous year (+1%) that is below the current level of inflation. However, it is still up 28 per cent on 2019 (pre-pandemic).

It marks the second consecutive annual rise as 2022 saw the first rise in cash withdrawals for 13 years. Prior to 2022 the number of cash withdrawals had been steadily declining, most sharply at the start of the pandemic when the number of withdrawals at Nationwide ATMs dropped more than 40 per cent in a year (26.4m in 2020 v 44.5m in 2019).

Otto Benz, Director of Payments at Nationwide Building Society, said: "ATMs play a vital role in society, enabling people to easily access and manage their money flow. We now have the largest branch network in the UK, which allows us to support customers who want access to cash, whether from our ATMs or over the counter. Unfortunately, the large banks have closed, and in some cases are still closing large numbers of branches, meaning far fewer free-to-use ATMs are available.

"ATMs do more than just dispense cash - nearly half of transactions are from people paying money in, checking their balance or paying a household bill. This goes to show this is far from the end for cash and we will continue to offer our customers the ability to access their money on their terms whether that be digitally or in branch."

ATM usage

The rise in multi-use ATMs mean that cash withdrawals are only part of the picture. Nearly half (45%) of all transactions are for other services - from printing mini-statements and paying bills and changing PINs to paying in cash and cheques¹.

Year	Cash withdrawals	Other transactions
Total per year	Average per month	Total per year	Average per month
2014	52.41m	4.37m	43.61m	3.63m
2015	51.56m	4.30m	43.17m	3.60m
2016	50.69m	4.22m	42.38m	3.53m
2017	49.75m	4.15m	41.78m	3.48m
2018	46.50m	3.88m	38.53m	3.21m
2019	44.55m	3.71m	36.13m	3.01m
2020	26.43m	2.20m	27.90m	2.33m
2021	25.45m	2.12m	26.94m	2.25m
2022	30.21m	2.52m	28.76m	2.40m
2023	31.36m	2.61m	25.37m	2.11m

When it comes to depositing cash, over the last five years (2018 to 2023) Nationwide has seen a 10 per cent increase in the number of times its ATMs are used to deposit cash into accounts with the average amount deposited rising to £277 - a 29 per cent increase on five years ago.

Last branch in town

In many places Nationwide is now the last branch in town, which has reduced the number of options for local people looking for a free-to-use ATM. During the last year, usage at Nationwide ATMs in towns where the Society has now become the last branch in town has increased by an average of 55 per cent. The places with the biggest increases in usage as a result of becoming last branch in town include Twickenham (+154%), Redruth (+144%), Purley (+92%), Broadstone (+80%) and Hunstanton (+77%).

Branch	Increase in cash use during last year	Branch	Increase in cash use during last year
Twickenham	154%	Chingford	52%
Redruth	144%	Easingwold	52%
Purley	92%	Marlow	50%
Broadstone	80%	Stony Stratford	46%
Hunstanton	77%	New Malden	44%
Potters Bar	74%	Pocklington	39%
Windsor	73%	Whitstable	26%
Sandbach	73%	Wallingford	23%
Bromborough	72%	Upton Park	21%
Stanmore	64%	Birstall	12%

The majority (90%) of the increase in withdrawals in last branch in town areas over the last two years has been from non-Nationwide customers.

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