An estimated £1.5 billion is now being withdrawn a week in 20 million cash withdrawals compared to £1bn and 12 million withdrawals a week in early April.

Data published by LINK in early April during the lockdown showed an average reduction in ATM use when compared to 2019 of –57%. With the lockdown gradually easing across the UK, withdrawals are now down –30%, an overall increase by 64% since the early lockdown.

The average withdrawal value remains high at £77 compared to £65 in 2019 but has fallen from £85 in early lockdown.

LINK data shows that around 9,000 ATMs (of which 3,500 were pay-to-use) were disconnected from the network at some point during lockdown. Some of these machines are next to others, for example at a supermarket or bank branches, and are disconnected to help with social distancing. Others are in premises like cinemas, theme parks and shops which closed during lockdown. To date, over 3,000 of these ATMs (33%) have been reconnected.

Additionally, new research from LINK shows just over half of people (53%) have used cash in the past two weeks. Locations which have generally remained open through the crisis, such as convenience stores and supermarkets have seen the highest use whilst locations which have recently reopened such as pubs, restaurants and hairdressers are still only seeing low cash use.

Link also found that 22% of people have used cash in a convenience store in the last fortnight, 17% in a supermarket, 12% gave cash to friends and family and 8% of people used cash for beauty services or a haircut. 

At the same time, 6% spent cash on work in on their home or garden and 4% paid for products with cash in a pub. 

John Howells, LINK’s chief executive, said: “ATM use is slowly creeping back, and we can begin to see consumers returning to former habits by withdrawing less but using ATMs more. A considerable number of ATMs have yet to reopen since the lockdown. This too will be a gradual process, but we shouldn’t expect all of them to return. Consumers are forming new habits, whether it is online shopping or paying using contactless, but our underlying data shows that cash remains popular and important.”