Figures show ATMs becoming obsolete

Trips to the ATM may soon be a thing of the past, with new data showing that cash machine withdrawals in Australia have declined 17.2 percent since 2012.

Analysis by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has shown that in the 12 months up to April 2016, 685.8 million cash withdrawals were made nationwide — marking a six percent downgrade in a single year.  

Australians are increasingly turning to new contactless payment methods instead of visiting their nearest cash machine.

Bessie Hassan, a Money Expert with finder.com.au, said consumers will continue to favour ‘tap and go’ transactions in years to come

“'As we move closer to a cashless society the trend of less ATM withdrawals will continue,” she said.

The analysis also showed that forty percent of ATM users visited ‘foreign’ cash machines, thereby incurring a withdrawal fee of $2 or more. While this gave Australian banks $540.6 million in revenue to April of this year, ATM fees paid by customers also declined by 18.2 percent in the past five years.

“Why spend ten minutes hunting around for your bank's ATM when you can just flash your debit card for those everyday purchases?” Hassan said.

However, the use of ATMs will likely continue in more rural parts of the country, where customers use cash machines as a substitute for bank branches.

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Read the July 2016 issue of Business Review Australia and Asia magazine