Cash withdrawals up 15 per cent in February

Post offices saw a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in personal cash withdrawals in February, new figures revealed on Monday.

Helped by February being a leap year, there was £806 million in personal cash withdrawals at Post Office’s 11,500 branches – up 15 per cent year-on-year (£702 million) and up 3.6 per cent on January 2024 (£778 million).

Personal cash deposits totalled £1.28 billion, up 6.2 per cent year-on-year (£1.21 billion, February 2023). In January, which was a longer month, personal cash deposits totalled £1.42 billion.

Business cash deposits totalled £1.06 billion, up 6.7 per cent year-on-year (£998 million, February 2023). In January, which was a longer month, business cash deposits totalled £1.14 billion.

In total, £3.18 billion worth of cash transactions were handled by post offices in February.

In February, the location for a further seven Banking Hubs were announced, taking the total to 109 Banking Hubs. 40 hubs are now open providing modern, shared spaces developed in partnership with Cash Access UK where Post Office provides everyday banking and cash services to local residents and businesses

Mairi Wingate, who has been a postmistress for 36 years, including 18 years at Barton on Humber, now also runs the nearby Barton-upon-Humber Banking Hub. The Banking Hub opened in November in the main market thoroughfare of the market town, at the former Lloyds premises. This had been the last bank in town, which closed a year before.

“I’m seeing lots of new faces at the Banking Hub that I have not seen before at my existing post office. They are in different areas of the town and the post office is still as busy dealing with banking deposits and withdrawals. This shows the extent of the banking needs of the town and the surrounding villages,” Wingate said.

“There’s no way that cash is dying out. With the cost-of-living situation, using cash makes it easier for people to budget and businesses are happy to accept cash from customer as long as there are nearby places to do banking. Places like the nearby amusement arcade has lots of coins for banking.”

Ross Borkett, Post Office banking director, said: “Postmasters and their teams keep their branches open long hours enabling people to access their cash conveniently and securely and they value face-to-face interaction when doing their everyday banking. February’s cash withdrawal and deposit figures suggests that a significant number of people and businesses continue to rely on being able to access their cash, for free, at their local Post Office in order to help with day-to-day management of their finances.”

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.