The new figures arise as the UK as a whole has seen the number of its free cash machines dwindle whilst banks continue to announce branch closures.

It is estimated that Scottish people have spent £9.5m on withdrawing their money from cash machines in 2019 alone, nearly double the amount in 2018, when banks took in £5m from their customers, The Herald reports.

According to Link, the national cash machine network, fees for withdrawing cash topped £104m last year, up £29m on 2018.

On the other hand, thanks to cutting 8,700 free cash machines in the past two years, alongside branch cuts, banks have saved £120m according to research conducted by Link.

According to Link, there were 1396 pay to use cash machines in Scotland at the end of 2019, this is an increase of 565 from 2018. Which? has revealed that around 15,277 ATMs in the UK now charge fees – a quarter of all the cash machines in the UK.

These machines are also getting used more often, over 73 million times in 2019, 27 million more than the year before. This is largely due to the loss of the free cash machine in so many communities across the UK.

Many ATM operators say they have been forced to reduce the numbers of free ATMs due to a reduction in the interchange fee. The interchange fee used to be around 25p per transaction but went down to 22.5p between July 2018 and early 2019, undermining the business models of many independent cash machine operators.

Scottish Financial News reported in December 2019, that Link had received 275 requests for more free cash machines to be installed across Scotland within a two month period. Link said that it would attempt to obtain £3m from banks and building societies in the early months of 2020 to accommodate this need.

John Howells, Link chief executive, said: “People don’t like paying to access their money and Link agrees with them. ‘As people use less cash, many ATMs will become less economically viable, which means some ATMs will switch to charging. What’s important is that we continue to have a broad, extensive UK-wide free-to-use network. Link is committed to ensuring that every UK high street has free cash access via ATMs and Post Offices. We are also keen on initiatives that will incentivise retailers to provide free cashback for consumers.”

Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, added: “Massive cuts to the UK’s bank branch and cash machine networks have been highly lucrative for the big banks – but highly costly for millions of consumers. ‘Entire communities have been cut off from cash or forced to pay hefty fees to access their own money. Banks must take greater responsibility for ensuring customers are supported to make the transition to digital if branches close, and that those who are reliant on cash are not left behind by changes to the banking landscape.”