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The Daily PollBANKS COULD BE compelled to reinstall ATMs in towns and villages across the country under a new law that would guarantee that people and businesses have access to cash.
According to the Irish Examiner, new legislation being finalised by Finance Minister Michael McGrath would set out a maximum distance between cash machines in rural areas to ensure that people would not have to travel far to withdraw money.
It comes a year after a retail banking review recommended that the Government should set out Access to Cash legislation that would require banks to set out “reasonable access to cash” criteria to preserve access.
The review raised concern about the acceptance of cash into the future due to the trend of digitisation of banking, adding that risks could arise if retailers and other public service providers, such as doctors or hospitals decide to not accept cash.
So today we’re asking: Should banks be compelled to provide more ATMs?
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Banks should be more committed to the customers keeping branches open and staffed as it’s our money they love to pay out as dividends, and let’s not forget the billions payed out during the crash
@Dave O Neill: Are you willing to pay for that though? I couldn’t care less about branches of it means they have to charge me more.
@Dave O Neill: The traditional banking sector needs to be reimagined as we move out of a jobs based societal structure.
@Peter Murrey: And they increase profits by closing branches and having fewer staff. Circle of capitalist life
@Mick Duvanny: we bailed them out and they got rid of hundreds of staff, for profit. We don’t all want a cashless society. Good luck in next recession when your credit is switched off or the banks system goes down, or another cyber attack.
How so? What’s your plan?
Absolutely, and banks should be mandated to provide ATM withdrawals for free.
@Laois Weather: It should be part of a thank you to the Irish Taxpayer for bailing them out before anyone says that the Banks are a business and have no obligation. We had no obligation to bail them out, but we just did.
@Laois Weather: but then they will just charge more fees on your account. Banks never loose ever.
@Ah Come On Now: No that shouldn’t be allowed, they’ll dream up something anyway regardless of ATMs provided.if they can get away with it. Beggars shouldn’t be allowed to be choosers.
@Laois Weather: Neither did we have a choice.
Should be paying out a fair interest rate also like the rest of Europe
Definitely rather use cash .
@martin finnegan: Cash is going. It’s unavoidable, they don’t want to deal with it and we don’t use it enough.
@Thesaltyurchin: i work in retail and a lot of people pay with cash, it ain’t going away
Absolutely, cash is king
Banks and ATM owners should be made to post transaction prices on screen.
Some ATMs charge a euro per transaction
@Peter Murrey: Shops don’t charge for Cashback, do they?
@Peter Murrey: it should cost u a euro and change to withdraw €20 from ur account .
The only bank in the town closed, Bank of Ireland, and the ATM was removed.
But the town got together with the councilors in the area and got a new ATM installed at the Credit Union.
The only option after the ATM on the street closed was waiting for a shop or garage to open.
Thankfully, got a great little town that get behind ideas and have them implemented.
@Rafa C: Very beneficial for the town to have out-of-hours ATM services. Hopefully the Credit Unions can stay going, alot of them are struggling.
I genuinely handle cash about once a year (in birthday cards) but yes, withdrawing cash shouldn’t be an ordeal for people who still like to use it. I know very few who still use cash regularly, even my grandparents prefer their debit card now, but being in Dublin we have easy access to cash if we want it and so should everyone. We don’t need loads of ATMS in the same spot but there shouldn’t be towns/villages without one at all.
@Megan Ward: While tapping the card is almost the default thing, using cash is better. Less charges on small businesses overall.
@Megan Ward: wait until you visit a town for a night out that has no ATM and dont have chip and pin service due to no connectivity.
@Niall English: I’ve managed to cope mostly using card since I was 17 and started working, I think I’ll be alright but appreciate the concern you have like this is going to be a regular yet unforeseen occurrence for me and that I couldn’t possibly research beforehand :).
Generally when visiting small towns I’m going to visit someone from there and they let me know beforehand if somewhere we’ll be going is cash only. This having happened literally once in the last few years (and yes they had phone signal), it’s been a long time since I’ve come across a place in any country that didn’t have signal or card machines, on account of it not being 2003.
If you have any recommendations for Irish towns that are good craic but have no signal, ATMs or card machines, I’m all ears!
@Laois Weather: Using cash is better for people who don’t have a head like a sieve and lose things easily :) I can’t freeze cash if lose it. Lose my bank card, I can immediately cancel it and have a new one set up immediately and I’m not stuck for accessing my money, I actually have a couple of active ones anyway. Misplace my bank card, temporarily freeze it, unfreeze it as soon as I find it again.
Lose my phone, no one can pay with Apple Pay unless they’ve managed to knock me out and open my eyelids to use my Face ID to unlock my phone – not very convenient for them in a shop!
That aside, as someone else said below that hasn’t necessarily been true for a while. Especially with more competition in the market for the providers of card readers trying to outdo each other on low fees.
@Niall English: Especially when you run low on petrol after midnight. Anyone can be caught out by an unexpected detour.
@F Fitzgerald: I don’t drive, but am also yet to go into a garage in this country that doesn’t take card.
Don’t worry lads, me rarely carrying cash doesn’t affect either of you in the slightest.
Banks should be committed to thank us for giving the our money, not charging us fir every single thing for the “privilege” of using their bank. If banking is defacto mandatory by the government because of payslips, rent/mortgage requirements, then at least the government could set up a basic bank as it used to be where people puts their money with no charges so they can provide loans based on its capitalisation. Then let the private banks to compete and provide better services and let the people decide. But no way you should not be charged for giving someone your money, your money is what they use to make money.
@J Ven: Well said. The government could use the Post Office as it’s defacto basic bank. An ATM in every Post Office.
@Laois Weather: what you though are ATMs outside that can be accessed 24/7.
One cannot compel The Banks. The Banks are above the law.
when will people get it through their heads, the banks dont care about customers or what politicians have to say. We bailed them out with no strings attached and no accountability so does anyone really believe they care whats said to them. These things running banks dont have souls, morals or a caring bone in their body cos they were hired to be the exact opposite like any big business……
@Mary Looners: If what you say is right, why is AIB and Permanent TSB still partly in state ownership.
The banks have not and will not pay back, for all the damage they did to the country and people. Because of what they did, our borrowing costs went through the roof and bankrupted us. Do you not remember the IMF etc. and bailouts, which we are still paying for.
Banks are parasites and only feed off of others success.
Yes cash will always be king!!
Cash is king, end of, discussion over.
It’s mostly tax dodgers, criminals and conspiracy theorists who are hung up on cash – you can easily identify them by their usage of the phrase ‘cash is king’
Personally, I think we could do quite well as a society without all three groupings.
@Wombleman: ha, give your head a wobble will ye.
@Wombleman: nice trolling
@Wombleman: Tap your card, you get charged albeit a small charge. The business gets charged alot more – this results in prices having to be hiked in store to cover it. Banks make a killing with two charges per transaction. But hey, you’re sticking it to the man who dabbles in coin and note.
@Wombleman: Do you really like having every transaction you make logged and stored on hard drives? Companies pay serious money for such data for a very good reason.
@Laois Weather: No retail banks in Ireland charge customers anything for tap and pay. As for charges on businesses, these costs are not dissimilar to the costs associated with having cash on the premises (such as deposit fees, cash handling fees, time and expense counting takings, till “shortfalls” and increased insurance and security costs).
@Wombleman: no time for the old .Shane Mcgowan would be disappointed in you.
@Wombleman: Cash is King!!!!
I pay for transactions a lot in cash. I beep my card when cash is short. Trying to keep cash out of society would be tantamount to keeping figs out of fig rools.
@Garreth Byrne: you’re definitely not most people. Only 20% of transactions are done in cash in Ireland.
I’d rather the government use its energy to work on access to healthcare and public transport than ATMs. God knows it’ll fail at whatever it attempts.
@Chris O’Brien: that’s what they want you to believe. So everyone will go cashless. Cash is very much alive in other countries, like the states.
@colette byrne: They’re also obsessed with credit cards and often still get paid in cheque, wouldn’t be looking to them for advice or leads on banking habits.
Cash is king. If we go cashless watch the banks invent more charges on card transactions and I don’t want any body monitoring my personal life we’ll become like China a surveillance society and then the banks become centralised and totally unaccountable.
Of course they should and the first 250e should be on the bank.
@Pato: He’s back AGAIN!!!!! Serial journal commentator!!!!!
You queue and queue; You enter your PIN; You have an overwhelming urge to wash your hands in bleach – the thing’s filthy; You choose the cash option (no receipt since you’re eco-friendly; You choose an amount from the menu and wait; At this point it says “You can’t have that amount – only 20 or 50 Euro notes available” and the NO and YES buttons seem to change places on some ATMs during the same transaction.
Be great if they could just keep them working
More often than not when I go to use my local atm it’s out of order or you cannot lodge money or cheques at this time…
This country too small for banks anyway only need credit unions tbh.
Ideally banks exist to serve the public. In fact the public exists to enrich bankers. Sad but true, and it it’s about time it changed.
@Laois Weather – no charges for customers who use tap to pay. Business gets charged heftily for cash handling facilities and customers get charged for cash withdrawals. At least be honest/accurate with your arguments.
@SK – you’d fall under the conspiracy theorist category (possibly tax dodger too) – I genuinely couldn’t care less if my bank keeps a record of my transactions- the worst they can do is try to seek me something in which case I just say ‘no thanks’
@Willie Marty – are you telling me that older people don’t have cards? Really?
@Wombleman: Incorrect. There is a fee for using your card at point of sale, which you pay as part of your bank charges. While most banks cap these at a certain amount per month, or per quarter, there’s still a per-transaction charge. Honesty/accuracy yourself, please!
@Jason Memail: No bank in Ireland charges per-transaction fees to retail customers – AIB / BOI / PTSB all charge fixed monthly or quarterly account maintenance fees; irrespective of how many times you do or don’t tap and pay.
@Jason Memail: Not Revolut. Fee free life.
@Kevin Collins: Currently. That could change as easily as interest rates if it suits the banks here.
@F Fitzgerald: Likewise they could jack up the fees for ATM use too. So in terms of the argument for cash Vs tapping, hypothetical future fees don’t sway the debate either way.
So it’s OK to be an hour from a Garda station, or more from a hospital and to have ZERO access to public transport… But ATMs…that’s the pressing concern.
@Chris O’Brien: so you live an hour away from everything and then complain everything is an hour way…? Makes sense
Half of them don’t work anyway!
Providing an ATM is just putting in the ATM however does this compel banks to keep a top up of cash, the devil is in the detail.
Yep
Is this poll sponsored by The ATM Robbers Association?
I rather use the ones in Shops now. Less chance of a gouger coming up behind you. They could be sped up and allow more cash out though.
have your say