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Cash machines withdrawal?

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BJames

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Interesting reading all of this...

In Enfield, we have a variety of all of the above. Our local post office for example is cash and card at the main counter, but the shop (stationery/cards/boxes etc) has cash only, as the charges are too much for small businesses (this is technically a separate business to the main post office). BUT despite this, so many people now are coming with card payments, and despite the cash machine outside dispensing fivers, sometimes people end up just paying at the main counter. Its adapting to a changing environment, whereby in all fairness, cash is still popular, but card is arguably more so.
Is it?
Try going to Sweden, where most places only accept card.
I was surprised to find this myself when I was looking at a trip to Stockholm earlier this year, but it seems to work well. I've definitely noticed a lot of businesses that are not accepting cash anymore (although not so much in Enfield yet). For example, in Parsons Green, the little coffee shop next to the station is cashless, as is Megan's, a nice little restaurant, and both the Co-Op and Waitrose accept cash only at the till and not at the self checkouts, which many people use.

There is evidently changing consumer behaviour in two places I'm familiar with in but not so much when I've strayed outside of London to more rural places. I guess we'll see what the next ten years bring. We're due to have new £20 notes in next year anyway in the same style as the £5 and £10 notes.
 
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jon0844

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I'm in Stockholm now and there are places that take cash but it's definitely not common. Some museums made it clear they're card only (or cash free as they put it) but fortunately I didn't have to pay for these by showing a union card! That trumps a debit AND credit card. :D
 

gingerheid

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Just come back from holiday, where I used cash twice in three weeks; for bus tickets on a rural bus route that didn't have contactless. And earlier this year my first cash payment was in February...

Was thinking about how times have changed since my first trip abroad. Remember when travellers cheques were replaced by bank cards working abroad?
 

Peter Mugridge

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That is so archaic! Do you also light your house with candles and listen to the Home Service on the wireless? :D:D

:lol::lol::lol: Ha ha - no, I use LEDS throughout and being cloth eared I don't listen to the radio anyway... :lol::lol:


The branch manager told me recently that I am not the only one drawing cash out over the counter as several others do that regularly, but that I am the only one who understands the need to write the cheque to "self" rather than to "cash".
 
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gswindale

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I used our local bank "cashpoint" yesterday for the first time in several months.

It was brilliant - I could use it to pay both a cheque and some cash (notes) directly into my account and didn't even have to step inside the branch.
 

Tom B

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I use cash for nearly everything except large purchases. Credit cards do attract greater consumer protection, however I pay off the full balance monthly. I probably only write half a dozen cheques per year these days.
 

PeterC

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:lol::lol::lol: Ha ha - no, I use LEDS throughout and being cloth eared I don't listen to the radio anyway... :lol::lol:


The branch manager told me recently that I am not the only one drawing cash out over the counter as several others do that regularly, but that I am the only one who understands the need to write the cheque to "self" rather than to "cash".
You have a bank with a real manger? My experience is that most branches now just have a supervisory grade person in charge with managers who can actually make decisions located at a remote business centre.
 

johntea

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I don't use cash very often at all now - the nice thing about the progress of technology is such that I can now spend something on my card, log on to my online banking app and it is instantly there under pending transactions

A problem you do seem to get with the smaller retailers is their card machine is out of action and they never seem in any great hurry to get it fixed!

I also frequently switch banks as you can make several hundred quid easily by doing so, they hardly show any loyalty to me so I don't show any to them!
 

Bantamzen

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Talking of the topic - I have never used a cash machine in my life; I still take money out of the bank the old fashioned way by means of a cheque to "self" over the counter.

Unfortunately a lot of places no longer have local banks you can even do this at. My home town Baildon for example now has no banks (previously several were represented), and only two ATMs, one of which carries a charge. So unless someone wants to travel into Shipley just to get some cash, using cards is becoming the norm, even in the pubs (which thankfully are far more plentiful than banks / ATMs :D).
 

radamfi

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Unfortunately a lot of places no longer have local banks you can even do this at. My home town Baildon for example now has no banks (previously several were represented), and only two ATMs, one of which carries a charge. So unless someone wants to travel into Shipley just to get some cash, using cards is becoming the norm, even in the pubs (which thankfully are far more plentiful than banks / ATMs :D).

You can pay in and withdraw money from many current accounts at post offices, however you need to use the card and PIN for cash withdrawals.
 

Bantamzen

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You can pay in and withdraw money from many current accounts at post offices, however you need to use the debit card and PIN for cash withdrawals.

And when the Post Office goes, which for a while it did in Baildon until a local campaign got them to restore some functionality at a local newsagents....?

My point is that the ability to draw / deposit cash is being rapidly removed for much of the country's population. So almost by proxy we are having to become used to far more cashless transactions.
 

radamfi

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And when the Post Office goes, which for a while it did in Baildon until a local campaign got them to restore some functionality at a local newsagents....?

Post office numbers seem to be quite stable with many small post offices having long opening hours including Sunday. Post offices are not really necessary, though. The Netherlands closed all theirs years ago.
 

Bantamzen

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Post office numbers seem to be quite stable with many small post offices having long opening hours including Sunday. Post offices are not really necessary, though. The Netherlands closed all theirs years ago.

They may be in some places, but there are a lot that are closing because they simply don't make enough money any more. Even larger city based ones have downscaled, for example in Bradford city centre they went from a very large one, to a medium sized unit & now just a couple of counters in WH Smith. At lot of what made the Post Offices viable has gone, and quite honestly I would not recommend anyone rely on them as their sole point for cash withdrawals & deposits.
 

Killingworth

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Post office numbers seem to be quite stable with many small post offices having long opening hours including Sunday. Post offices are not really necessary, though. The Netherlands closed all theirs years ago.

In my postal code area there were 4 post offices 40 years ago. That soon reduced to 3. In the last 3 years that has reduced to one. Post Office outlets are also under threat. If your area still has one be thankful, it's probably having a hard time to keep going.
 

radamfi

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Even larger city based ones have downscaled, for example in Bradford city centre they went from a very large one, to a medium sized unit & now just a couple of counters in WH Smith.

But there's still one there, and the main advantage post offices have over banks is their coverage in residential areas, meaning less need for city centre branches. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't at least 10 post offices in Bradford.

I would not recommend anyone rely on them as their sole point for cash withdrawals & deposits.

Well, post offices are not open at night so anyone wanting cash at night already relies on ATMs. The vast majority of people already find going to a bank or post office to withdraw cash inconvenient, that's if they actually use cash.
 

radamfi

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In my postal code area there were 4 post offices 40 years ago. That soon reduced to 3. In the last 3 years that has reduced to one. Post Office outlets are also under threat. If your area still has one be thankful, it's probably having a hard time to keep going.

There were significant cuts to the post office network from the 80s until about 10 years ago, but since then the number has been roughly stable between 11,000 and 12,000. That's way bigger than the biggest bank branch network.
 

Bantamzen

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But there's still one there, and the main advantage post offices have over banks is their coverage in residential areas, meaning less need for city centre branches. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't at least 10 post offices in Bradford.

Which brings me back to the point that many Post Offices have closed, and many more are likely to do so in the future. Bradford is a large area & does still have a number of Post Offices & many of these are at threat, but as I said much of what was their staple branch business has gone. Few people use them for financial services, fewer people send letters, there is a myriad of couriers competing for what was once their core parcel business, and even the vast majority of benefits & pension are paid directly into bank accounts. The number may be stable, but as I have said many have morphed from dedicated branches to single counters in other businesses.

Again, I would not recommend anyone rely solely on them for your cash transactions.
 

radamfi

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Few people use them for financial services, fewer people send letters, there is a myriad of couriers competing for what was once their core parcel business, and even the vast majority of benefits & pension are paid directly into bank accounts.

But you could have said this 10 years ago and still there are a vast number of post offices left. Most people can happily conduct their lives without them, but there still seem to be a significant number of people who find a use for them. Maybe they are getting extra trade because of bank closures. I suppose if there's a shop there anyway it isn't a significant burden for the shopkeeper to do post office transactions as well. Many people reading this thread probably don't see the point in post offices, bank branches or even cash. Post offices seem to be kept in use by people with a different mindset.
 

Karl

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Although cash is now made of plastic so if you take that saying literally then it doesn’t make sense anymore. However it’s only people with brains that work in the way that mine does that notice things like that. :D

I find each £20 note I get feels odd since the plastic £5 and £10 notes were released. They almost feel like forgeries. Are the any plans for a plastic £20 note?
 

py_megapixel

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My town used to have six cash machines on the high street. This is now down to two. I think it's more of a case of pulling them out as soon as they stop working than removing them for the sake of it.
 

underbank

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A problem you do seem to get with the smaller retailers is their card machine is out of action and they never seem in any great hurry to get it fixed!

But there's nothing they can do themselves once they've reported a fault. It's then often a blame game between the provider of the terminal, the merchant account provider, the telecoms firm, etc. Often the reason is a broadband/wifi fault which can take many days or even weeks to get fixed.
 

underbank

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Which brings me back to the point that many Post Offices have closed, and many more are likely to do so in the future. Bradford is a large area & does still have a number of Post Offices & many of these are at threat, but as I said much of what was their staple branch business has gone. Few people use them for financial services, fewer people send letters, there is a myriad of couriers competing for what was once their core parcel business, and even the vast majority of benefits & pension are paid directly into bank accounts. The number may be stable, but as I have said many have morphed from dedicated branches to single counters in other businesses.

I think the Post Offices have survived due to ebay - the vast majority of small ebay sellers (private sellers and smallest businesses) continue to use the Post office as they're still the cheapest for one-off/occasional small parcels. I'm often in a queue behind someone sending a sack full of small packets/parcels. Yes, there are plenty of couriers, but prices usually start around a fiver, whereas a small parcel in the Post Office is about £3.

The other thing they're good for at the moment is foreign currency - now that there are a lot fewer High St travel agents, the Post Office seems to have picked up a lot of the holiday money trade.

And lots of small businesses use PO branches to pay in their cash takings - several banks have reciprocal agreements and some don't charge - it works well for the PO as they need cash to pay out for cash withdrawals, pensions, etc., so it's cheaper for them to use cash paid in by small businesses rather than have it delivered by security vans.

Post offices have certainly "thinned out" as there are far fewer branches, but there's still a lot of them about, especially in smaller towns and bigger villages where there isn't any other bank.
 

underbank

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They may be in some places, but there are a lot that are closing because they simply don't make enough money any more. Even larger city based ones have downscaled, for example in Bradford city centre they went from a very large one, to a medium sized unit & now just a couple of counters in WH Smith. At lot of what made the Post Offices viable has gone, and quite honestly I would not recommend anyone rely on them as their sole point for cash withdrawals & deposits.

There's less need in city centres for a post office. There are alternatives for banking, such as usually a few bank branches. There are few businesses in the city centres - most are now in out of town industrial estates, business parks, etc., so they wouldn't be traipsing into the city to post their mail anyway - RM collect letters and parcels from the main business areas. I'm not sure many private individuals would go into a city to post their birthday present to great aunt mabel either -they'd just take it to a local one near where they live or work.

So, I think the demise of city centre post offices are for different reasons - in our city and the nearest large town, both "main" post offices have closed, but they were a shadow of their former selves anyway. Both used to have huge sorting offices behind which closed down years ago when sorting was moved out to an out of town warehouse. By the time they closed, they did little more than over the counter stamp and parcels, so that minimal trade was better suited to a counter in WHSmith anyway.

The local ones we have in my village, the next nearest village and the two small towns seem as busy as ever. One did close a few years ago in another village a few miles in the other direction, but it was badly run by a woman who hadn't a clue, so probably more a case of driving customers away due to bad customer service and always running out of shop stock.
 

james60059

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Hinckley has fared alright for a small town, 2 at Lloyds, 2 at Barclays, 1 at Nationwide, and 1 at HSBC, Halifax and Yorkshire Bank as well as 2 at Sainsbury's which reopened a couple of years ago after extensive refurbishment of The Crescent complex. Likewise, out of town, Asda has 2 cash points, Morrisons has 2, Tesco by the railway station has 2 and the Tesco Express just up the road has 1
 

sprunt

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The other thing they're good for at the moment is foreign currency - now that there are a lot fewer High St travel agents, the Post Office seems to have picked up a lot of the holiday money trade.

They're absolutely terrible for foreign currency, if you use them you're getting ripped off with terrible rates.
 

HOOVER29

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We have 8 cash points in the main shopping street where I live in Leicestershire.
That in a distance of around 1/3 of a mile.
Then there are 3 at the local Tesco at the top end of town, another at the services & one more at newly opened M&S store both across the road from Tesco.
Plus theres a few of those that charge you to withdraw your cash.
Won’t use one of those though as long as I’ve air in my lungs
 

scotrail158713

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Plus theres a few of those that charge you to withdraw your cash.
Won’t use one of those though as long as I’ve air in my lungs
Quite right, I’m the same.
I had one of those in my local convenience store - it then became free to use and the shop subsequently had a sign outside promoting “Free Cash Withdrawals”. A month of two ago however it started charging for use again so the shop have just scored out “Free” on their sign - instead of doing the normal thing and removing the sign. :)
 

JamesT

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I know you inhabit a very different part of England from me, but I think you probably don't use your card(s) in many small shops, because most down my way either have a minimum transaction (varying between £5 and £10 usually, though I know one where it's £12) or charge a small fee (35p to 50p) for anything under those amounts. My own personal experience as a small shopkeeper, admittedly ending about three years ago, was that Nat West Streamline were charging me the same 35p per credit card transaction as they'd been doing for about twenty years! I could probably have got better terms, but sometimes better to stick with your own bank, particularly if you've been for some reason their unlikely 'poster boy' when the system was in its infancy decades ago!

(My bold)
Hopefully said shops will have taken note of the fact that charging extra for using a card has been illegal since January 2018 and will have stopped doing it. I gave in and paid cash the last time someone tried to charge me extra, I do wonder whether I should have tried reporting them to Trading Standards and if they'd actually do anything about it.
 
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