Charges of £2 a time just to withdraw your own money from cash machines at railway stations are here to stay, according to a group of commuter activists.
As Inside Croydon revealed earlier this week, transaction charges have been imposed on the cash machines at East Croydon Station.
Our loyal reader has confirmed that a similar change has been introduced in the past week at South Croydon Station.
And now the Association of British Commuters, the busy battlers on behalf of beleaguered rail passengers, suggest that the charges are being implemented at cash machines throughout the rail network.
ABC took the matter up with Govia, who run the Southern and Thameslink services through East Croydon to Brighton, the south coast and into London Bridge and Victoria. Govia say that cash machine charges are the decision of machine operators Cardtronics, “and that all machines on stations are expected to charge by the end of October”.
ABC said: “They’ve assured us they are not benefiting financially from this decision.”
In a notice distributed at Brighton Station a few weeks ago, it was said that the decision to make charges had “been made as a result of changes to ATM charging structures which are being imposed by the Link organisation”.
These changes by Link mean that cash machine operators are paid less for transactions on many Automatic Telling Machines, making the network less profitable to run. So now it is the bank customers who are being expected to pay, at £1.99 a time for the privilege of accessing their own money, if the machines outside East Croydon are typical.
If you are seeking a charge-free cash machine, click here for a useful online tool.
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This may be another shoot yourself in the foot piece of opportunism.
I was going to take cash out but didn’t… strolled 100 metres down further into Croydon and did it for free. I suspect lots of other people will object to paying an arbitrary, quite high charge to get hold of their own money.
Something reasonable, say 50p, may have worked but a cynical £1.99 won’t.
Once they have crossed the rubicon of charging us for our own money there will be no end to it … these charges will inflate endlessly. This despite us bailing out the banks and them employing less people than ever before. I have loads of cash at home. It is near impossible to find a bank to pay it in to as they have no branches left… Except in high density areas where it’s expensive to park. Even if one was to walk to the bank they still work Captain Mainwairing hours in the 21st century which is next to useless.