Nationwide Building Society says its customers are increasingly returning to cash over card payments as it recorded 32.8 million withdrawals last year, which marks the third annual rise
Despite the UK moving towards becoming a cashless society, an increasing number of people are deciding to use notes and coins again as a more efficient way of budgeting, says the country’s biggest retail bank. Thanks to the development and increase of electronic methods of payment, such as contactless and a rise in digital banking, Britain has seen a significant decline in the use of cash over recent years. UK Finance says in the decade between 2012 and 2022, cash payments fell from 54 per cent to 14 per cent.
The pandemic dramatically accelerated this change with payments in cash falling by 35% in 2020. This is also when lots of shops and restaurants started to refuse to take notes and coins, insisting payments were made by debit or credit card. However, since 2022 shoppers have been favouring cash again as a more effective way of budgeting for their daily living expenses and bills, says the Nationwide Building Society. This was also when the cost of living crisis saw a huge rise in retail prices and people began to feel the pinch more so began to move away from the dangers of card use again.
New data from the UK’s biggest retail bank shows cash payments have increased for the third year in a row. Nationwide recorded around 32.8 million cash withdrawals from its 1260 ATMs in 2024, with an average amount of £112 taken out each time, figures show. This is a 10% increase on 2023 figures.
The busiest time of the year for cash withdrawals was the week before Christmas where £97.9m – a 1.8% increase on the previous year – was withdrawn. It is also the highest amount dispensed in a week since pre-Covid. The biggest increase in cash withdrawals were recorded in Chiswick, West London (up 140%), Shotton, Flintshire (up 115%) and Fakenham, Norfolk (up 96%). There was also a large increase in the number of non-Nationwide customers using their ATMs because of the continued closures of other bank branches.
Otto Benz, Director of Payments at Nationwide Building Society, commented: “The rising cost of living continues to impact people and many are opting to budget with physical money to avoid getting into debt. The major banks have closed branches in towns and cities across the country taking away many of the free ATMs that people rely on, which is why the biggest rise in withdrawals comes from non-Nationwide customers.”
Cash use in shops rose for a second year in a row after a decade of falls, according to retailers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said notes and coins were used in a fifth of transactions last year. The amount spent per purchase also dropped slightly from £22.43 in 2022, to £22.03 last year, it said.
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