Stone leads cross-party effort to secure free ATMs
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Jamie Stone has led a cross-party group of 26 MPs in a bid to achieve a "fairer system" of free-to-use cash machines.
They are calling on the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and the UK government to take action on the interchange fee – allowing more ATMs up and down the country to become free to use again.
The decision by Link, the UK's largest cash machine network, to cut the fee paid by banks to ATM providers for every cash withdrawal has passed costs usually paid by banks on to consumers, meaning there are fewer free-to-use cash machines.
Some 10,500 of these have already disappeared across the UK in the past two years, with one in four ATMs now charging to withdraw cash.
The MPs' letter – signed by the Liberal Democrat, SNP, Labour and Conservative members – as well as a parliamentary motion introduced by Mr Stone asks the PSR to introduce a tiered or zonal approach to interchange fees. This, they say, would ensure funding is fairly distributed throughout the UK to protect access to cash in all communities.
Mr Stone, the Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said: "It’s unacceptable that my constituents have to pay to access their hard-earned cash.
"There are those who are vulnerable or elderly or simply live too far away from a free-to-use ATM. It’s the regular and disadvantaged folk in the community that are bearing the brunt of this.
"I hope the regulator and the government take up my proposals, rethink their current position and introduce a fairer system for all."
