ATM transactions declined by 37% in 2020, though UK adults still withdrew more than £1,500 on average from cash machines, according to LINK, the UK’s largest cash machine network.
Coronavirus lockdowns led to £81bn withdrawn in 2020 compared to £116bn in 2019, says LINK in a new report.
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The Leeds, Yorkshire-based company is the busiest ATM transaction switch in the world.
In recent years, as consumers use alternative payment methods such as contactless cards or online payments, ATM transactions have fallen on average around 10% year-on-year.
The pandemic is reshaping Britons’ daily habits
However, in April 2020, when the UK went into the first national lockdown, ATM transactions fell initially by up to 68%.
In spite of subsequent lockdowns, more than £1.6bn was still withdrawn from cash machines every week for the rest of 2020.
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By GlobalDataThe coronavirus crisis has had a huge impact on ATM use and in total £81bn was withdrawn from ATMs in 2020 compared to £116bn in 2019, a fall of 30%.
Additionally, consumers visited ATMs less frequently with 1.6bn transactions in 2020 compared to 2.6bn in 2019*, a 37 per cent drop.
Overall, adults each withdrew around £660 less in 2020 than in 2019 but the average withdrawal value was £78 in 2020 compared to £67 in 2019 as when they did visit an ATM, consumers took out more.
Consumers in Northern Ireland withdrew the most (£2,124) compared to other regions.
Scotland saw the steepest fall with adults withdrawing almost £900 less than they did in 2019.
UK adults visited ATMs 12 times less in 2020 than they did in 2019
| Region | Withdrawal per adult (2019) | Withdrawal per adult (2020) | Change per adult |
| Northern Ireland | £2,931 | £2,124 | £806.63 |
| London | £2,572 | £1,838 | £733.96 |
| Scotland | £2,553 | £1,670 | £883.15 |
| North West | £2,420 | £1,745 | £674.31 |
| Yorkshire & The Humber | £2,379 | £1,705 | £674.59 |
| North East | £2,378 | £1,711 | £667.01 |
| West Midlands | £2,191 | £1,612 | £578.95 |
| East Midlands | £2,017 | £1,427 | £589.05 |
| Wales | £2,005 | £1,407 | £598.11 |
| East of England | £1,894 | £1,299 | £594.73 |
| South East | £1,780 | £1,196 | £583.70 |
| South West | £1,684 | £1,090 | £593.73 |
| Total | £2,193 | £1,534 | £659.14 |
Overall, ATM numbers declined with many ATMs temporarily closing for social distancing purposes or in premises such as cinemas and pubs that are closed due to restrictions.
Free-to-use machines fell from 45,300 in 2019 to 41,700 in 2020. Pay-to-use machines also declined from 15,300 to 12,600.
