With as many as 1,700 ATMs having been converted to charge fees in March alone, the FSB believes this not only stripping communities of their free access to cash but impacting SMEs too.
Consumer group Which? found that the rate of machines being converted to charge fees appears to be on the increase.
Responding to the report, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) National Chairman Mike Cherry, said, “In an environment where 25 million shoppers see notes and coins as a necessity, cashpoint charges are bad for business.
“Many small firms still have customers that want to pay in cash. Every pound lost to ATM charges is a pound not spent with small businesses. Charging shoppers to withdraw their own money is wrong and dampens consumer appetite, causing a drag on local growth in the process.
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Email Jaime“These charges often hit society’s most vulnerable: the elderly, those less able to travel and those sticking to tight budgets.
“While we’ve successfully persuaded LINK to row back on the speed and depth of cash machine funding cuts, a lot of damage has already been done.
“A regulator should now be given explicit responsibility for protecting free access to cash for as long as people want and need it. Otherwise, we risk hurtling towards a cashless society that millions are not ready for yet.”
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