‘More money than ever’ to be drawn from ATMs

With millions of people around the country struggling to become debt free, Sainsbury’s Bank has predicted that this month will see record amounts of money drawn from ATMs nationwide.

The financial services firm estimates that over the course of December there will be an average of £348.06 million withdrawn from the UK’s cash machines, which will mean £10.79 billion in cash will be accessed in this way.

At an average of 7.59 million ATM transactions each day, Sainsbury’s Bank’s latest figures suggest there will be 1.14 million more cash machine withdrawals this month than was the case in December 2003.

Alex Blake, head of ATMs at Sainsbury’s Bank, said: “People are more reliant on ATMs than ever before and the peak time for cash withdrawals is December.

“This helps explain why there has been a 29 per cent increase in the number of ATMs between December 2003 and June 2007.”

According to the Credit Action charity, the UK’s overall debt management burden increases by close to £1 million every four minutes.