There is much fuss about this story on the BBC Have Your Say section of their website.
Now as long as bank don’t remove their current free cash machines, charge each others customers to use their own machines and that there is advance warning before inserting your card into the fee paying machine, what is the fuss all about.
The news story highlights how the number of fee paying machines are going up, whilst free machines have remained static.
Thats right the number of free machines hasn’t actually gone down, it’s just that we have more of these convenience machines.
They are mostly found at petrol stations, kwik-e-marts, pubs or clubs. The advantage of them is that you don’t need to leave the pub to go out into the cold to find a machine or leave the nightclub early as you’ve run out of money, and all for a small fee between £1 and £2.
Whilst I’m not that old, I do remember when the only way to get some cash on a Sunday was to get the pub landlord to cash a cheque and depending on what sort of customer you were depended on what fee you would pay.
Times have changed, but instant accessible non-chargeable money hasn’t and won’t with a free market.