ATM's that charge a fee.

Grumps

I suppose that this is one of those, "What's in your wallet?" type of questions.

As a person who travels widely I never worried too much about having notes in my wallet as I could always call in at a Motorway Services and use a cash machine.

I've noticed that over the last, perhaps, 12 months, more and more have changed from bank affiliated machines to those that charge a fee.

The consequence of this is that now, instead of waiting until I get down to my last 'tenner', I now not only maintain a higher 'float', about £30, but I also draw out more cash from the free ATM's, and obviously use them less frequently.

Has anyone else adjusted their banking practices in a similar manner?

The reason I'm asking is because the next meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee is on the same date as the expected election. Ironically, this could mean an Interest Rate rise being announced in the midst of polling.

I believe that one of the factors considered by the MPC is "Coins & Notes in Circulation".

Should it be the case that peoples habits have changed towards 'fatter' wallets then these fee-charging ATM's could 'skew' the figures presented to the MPC and trigger a rate rise on possibly false data.

Something to ponder.

grumbler

I think this DISCUSSION could be interesting for you.

Grumps

Thanks for that. I'd no doubt that it had already been discussed, but found no obvious thread.

I'll review it in detail later.