Threat to free money

30 November -0001

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Fee Free cash machine cold soon become a thing of the past as more and more companies replace their bank sponsored cash machines with fee charding machines, which are cheaper for them.

A report by Nationwide highlighted the fact that over the next yearm UK consumers are likely to spend £250m just on getting to their own money.

Just 5 years ago, the concept of the fee-charging cash machine was realtively unheard of. Now there are over 24'000 fee charging cash machimes, charging between £1.50 and £5 for access to the cash in you account. According to a spokesperson for Nationwide, free cash machines coud become limited to banks and building societies over the next few years.

The motor network is a major indicator of this disturbing trend, as many motorway service stations are replacing their cash machines with fee charging ones. Welcome Break and Roadchef sites have been bought up by Cardpoint, the country's biggest fee charger, while Moneybox has a similar deal with Moto.

Nationwide spokesman Frank Creighton said:
'There is a potential for this to happen at railway stations, bus stations and at sites provided by larger store chains, we don't want to wake up in five years' time and be asking what happened to my free access to cash.'

Rules on fee-charging cash machines were tightened in July this year, as charges must be displayed before the transaction is completed, but Nationwide wants to further this regulation, suggesting that all fee-charging cash machines should display a red sticker to warn customers that they will be charged for the privelige of their hard earned cash.

The Link network, which owns many of the fee-charging cash machines say that There is no current evidence that free cash machines are under threat. There are over 32,000 free cash machines in the UK and 96% of cash withdrawals are free.

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