UK customers most regular cash machine users in Europe

UK payments association Apacs has today issued a report on the use of cash machines in the UK, claiming that there are more cash machines here, with more withdrawals made, than anywhere else in Europe.

The number of ATMs in the UK has more than doubled in the past six years, from 27,329 in 1999 to 58,286 in 2005.

Britons make the highest number of cash withdrawals in the EU, the study said. There were 2.7 billion transactions in 2005, equating to more than 42 per person, and an estimated 86 withdrawals made every second last year.

The majority of the cash obtained is from free-to-use machines, Apacs said, a ratio of 97 per cent by cash value and 95.5 per cent by volume.

Sandra Quinn, spokesperson for Apacs, commented: “Access to cash machines in the UK has mushroomed over the past six years.

“And whilst bank and building society machines have contributed to this massive growth – and have continued to grow – the key driver has been the entrance of independent, typically non-banking providers who now supply over 25,000 of the UK’s 58,000 cash machines in places we have never seen them before.”