£3.37bn worth of cash transacted in Post Offices in Jan

New figures today (12) revealed Post Offices handled £3.37 billion worth of cash deposits and withdrawals in January 2024, up over £140 million on January 2023 (£3.23 billion).

Personal cash deposits totalled £1.42 billion in January. This was just short of the all-time record set for a single month which was in September 2022 (+ £372,000). Personal cash deposits were up almost 8 per cent month-on-month (£1.32 billion, December 2023) and up 2.5 per cent year-on-year (£1.39 billion, January 2023).

Business cash deposits totalled £1.14 billion in January, the highest amount in a single month since June 2023 (£1.17 billion). Business cash deposits were up almost 4 per cent month-on-month (£1.10 billion, December 2023) and up 3.3 per cent year-on-year (£1.11 billion, January 2023). The all-time record for business cash deposits in a single month was set in August 2022 (£1.2 billion).

In December, Post Offices 11,500 branches saw a record £930 million worth of personal cash withdrawals. December is always the busiest month of the year for cash withdrawals in the run-up to Christmas. In January, personal cash withdrawals over the counter totaled £778 million. This was up 10 per cent year on year (£709 million, January 2023).

Royal Wootton Bassett Post Office

Ashwin Patel, Postmaster for Royal Wootton Bassett Post Office for 12 years, has also recently opened a Banking Hub in the Wiltshire town where all the many banks and building societies, that once existed, have all closed. The highly experienced Postmaster has also opened a much-needed Post Office in West Swindon, inside a former bank premises, restoring Post Office services to this community too. 

Postmaster Ashwin Patel, said, “Not everyone is able to do online banking because they don’t have the technology or the know-how or they need personal reassurance, advice or to be pointed in the right direction. Banking Hubs and Post Offices are meeting real banking needs in communities and giving people the freedom to still pay for services with cash and for businesses to still be willing to accept cash, when there are places nearby to do banking. One launderette owner, came in with £3000 in coins to pay in as it was easy to pop in.”

Oxted Post Office

Postmistress Nidhi Prashar has served Post Office customers in Surrey for 30 years at Oxted as well as serving customers for six years at her Epsom branch. 

Postmistress, Nidhi Prasahar, said, “In Oxted there are no banks left and we meet the banking needs of the community – so it’s non-stop banking customers. In Epsom there are lots of banks and building societies, but we are open longer hours than all of them, so for some customers they find it more convenient to come here.

“I love being a postmistress. It’s the people that you meet that make it so great. There aren’t many jobs where you have this great interaction with people. People come in regularly and you build up a relationship. Customers become like extended family.”

Ross Borkett, Post Office Banking Director, said, “Postmasters and their teams keep their branches open long hours so that millions of people can access their cash conveniently and securely and they value face-to-face interaction when doing their everyday banking. Over 13 million cash transactions took place in January and we will continue to do all we can to support people to continue to do their everyday banking with their local Postmaster.”

Post Office has partnerships with over 30 banks, building societies and credit unions meaning that 99 per cent of UK bank customers can access their accounts at their Post Office branch.

Post Office Cash tracker data – January 2024

Business cash deposits

Personal cash deposits

Personal cash withdrawals

Banking Hubs

As at Feb 12, 33 hubs have been opened in partnership between Cash Access UK and the Post Office. 102 Banking Hubs have now been announced by LINK with further openings planned for later this year.