New data from the Reserve Bank of Australia shows Australians are increasingly choosing to use cash, according to the Cash Welcome campaign.
The total number of ATM cash withdrawals made in Australia during January 2024 was 30,235,600 (seasonally adjusted), not including EFTPOS cash-outs and over-the-counter bank transactions.
That’s up 474,500 (1.6 per cent) from December 2023 when Australians made 29,761,100 ATM withdrawals and up 180,700 (0.6 per cent) from January 2023.
The average value of ATM cash withdrawals was $304.90 in January 2024, up slightly from $291.80 in January 2023.
“This is big and significant jump in the number of cash withdrawals. It’s now clear that many Australians are clearly choosing to return to using cash,” said Jason Bryce, spokesperson for the Cash Welcome campaign.
“Everyone is concerned about their privacy, their safety from online scams and the uncertainty caused by regular payment system outages,” Mr Bryce said.
“The increasing number of cash withdrawals is being made at a decreasing number of bank-owned ATMs, contradicting the commonly repeated bank claim that branches and ATM closures are caused by changing consumer demands.
“I am now looking forward to banks reopening their ATMs to respond to their customers clearly wanting to access physical banknotes,” he said.
An online petition calling for government action to protect access and acceptance of cash has now collected more than 164,000 signatures.
Other nations, such as the UK, European Union, Sweden, The Netherlands and France, and jurisdictions in the USA, like New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Washington DC, Detroit, San Francisco and New York, already protect their citizens’ right to choose cash.
Ireland has released its new legislation to protect the role of cash.
“Now the Australian government must catch up and also mandate cash acceptance, or require banks to provide us with access to our own cash,” said Mr Bryce.
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