|
The phone box that gives cash
(Daily Mail (London) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 24--The battle to halt the spread of fee-charging cash machines has received a major boost after HSBC's deal with BT to install 50 free machines linked to phone boxes.
BT has already joined Barclays to install two cash machines next to phone boxes, while Nationwide is piloting five.
About 160 other BT payphone terminals have private cash machines attached, operated by companies such as Cardpoint and Bank Machine. The majority of these charge a fee of between 1.50 and 1.75 per withdrawal.
The first HSBC machines are in Chiswick, west London, and Sutton, Surrey. Three more, in Barnstaple, Devon; Edinburgh; and Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, will follow soon.
In Chiswick High Road, where two BT phone boxes once stood together, there is now one enclosed BT phone plus a bright red HSBC machine with another BT phone attached at the side.
Gas engineer Neil Baron, 27, who had stopped to use the cash machine, says: "I've been caught out before by convenience machines that charge 1.50, so it's good to see a new one in a prominent location with no fee being charged."
Maria Clarke, 21, branch manager of an insurance company, says: "At first, I thought they were taking the phone box away and I was annoyed, but when I saw the new cash machine I was pleased. I'm an HSBC customer, so it is good news."
But Sam Carr, 33, a mother with three children under seven, believes it is too exposed. Unlike the pay phone next to it, the ATM is not enclosed and has no door. "I don't think I'll use this machine," she says. "I feel safer at the machines in my bank."
BT says it is keen to link up with other banks and building societies to offer free cash machines. " Payphone usage is dwindling and revenues for us are falling in that area," he says. "The link-up with ATMs now enables us to subsidise the payphone service."
Cash machine companies bring in more than 250 million in ATM charges every year, according to Nationwide. And in the past year, the number of fee-charging machines increased by 11 per cent from 23,000 to almost 26,000.
At present, more than half of the ATMs in post offices charge a fee while one in ten cash machines in hospitals is fee-charging.
Last month, Halifax announced it would install 100 free cash machines in socially deprived or rural areas.
The first 20 locations include Ardler in Dundee; The Balderstone area of Rochdale, Lancashire; Claremont in Blackpool; Kenton in Newcastle upon Tyne; and Pilton, Edinburgh.
John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, has set up a taskforce to look at cash machine provision, in particular in rural and deprived areas.
The taskforce, which will report back this week, is also investigating ways of introducing colour coding to distinguish between feecharging and free machines.
To see more of the Financial Mail on Sunday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.financialmail.co.uk.
Copyright (c) 2006, Financial Mail on Sunday, London
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To HD Voice's Homepage ]
|
