UK mutual Nationwide Building Society has launched the first of a series of free ATMs that will be attached to phone boxes. The move is designed to increase the number of sites where people can gain free access to their cash.
The first of five highly secure, bullet-proof machines was installed on a BT kiosk in Whitehills Crescent, Northampton in May, the other four were in place soon afterwards.
The building society said that the project backs up Nationwide’s focus on giving customers easy, free access to cash in locations where there may not be a branch or agency at a time when the number of ATMs that charge for withdrawals, typically GBP1.50 per transaction, is on the increase.
Nationwide currently operates 2,424 free-to-use cash machines in the UK, of which 1,132 are based in its branches, with the remaining 1,292 located at various sites, including retail outlets, petrol stations and the London Underground. A recent report from the Citizens Advice Bureau criticized fee-charging machines which are often located in deprived areas.