NEW RESEARCH has revealed how a Lancashire town has seen its cash machines decline by over 15 per cent.

According to a report collected by payment provider Dojo, Chorley has lost 16 cash machines between January 2019 and September 2020 meaning there are now only 79 available to the residents, a decline of 16.84 per cent.

Nationwide, the report found that the number of cash machines in Britain dropped from 62,967 to 55,674, a decrease of 7,293, with an average of over 340 machines disappearing from high streets every month.

Dojo head of customer insight Jon Knott said: “During the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the makeup of the great British highstreet has changed enormously.

"While it’s long been evolving in the face of the rising of the digital marketplace, coronavirus has reaffirmed the dominance of financial technologies.

"As we’ve seen already in the press, the contactless limit could increase once again from £45 to £100, allowing people more convenience to tap for their in-store purchases."

The loss of cash machines is significant given that elderly people and those on low incomes are the most reliant on them.

However, the research has also shown that the number of free to use machines is dropping at a faster rate than those which charge a usage fee.

These particular cash machines which are less financially viable are often the ones to first disappear ahead of those that charge a fee to use meaning more members of the public are left with less choice of where to go to take out their money.

The increased use of contactless payments during the pandemic has also hit the viability of cash machines all around the country, as have new digital technologies.

Mr Knott said: "With more and more people opting for Apple and Google Pay which has no capped limit for contactless payments, consumers are welcoming the efficiency and speed at which they can purchase larger value products and services.

"It is no surprise then, in our digitised economy, that the use of cash is decreasing, making ATMs redundant."

To find out more, go to https://dojo.tech/blog/uk-cash-machine-declines/.