Number of Scottish cash machines dropping at a rate of forty a month

The scale of the plummeting trend has been revealed by Link, the UK’S largest cash machine network.

Link says that in November they had 6,037 cashpoints – both free and paid for – in Scotland - 330 fewer than in March.

The number of free-to-use cashpoints fell by almost 200 over the eight months to 5,198, meaning many people are increasingly being forced to pay to access their own money.

The data shows that in Scotland the largely rural region of Dumfries and Galloway lost the most hole-in-the-walls, with nine of its 109 cash machines lost and semi-rural Aberdeen South and Argyll and Bute have both seen six go. Orkney and Shetland have both lost one each.

Edinburgh West, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath have lost seven each while one of the most deprived constituencies in the UK, Glasgow East, has lost six of 121 cashpoints.

Liink said the cuts has been driven by the seven per cent drop in transaction levels at ATMs over the last 12 months as people move to using alternative payment methods such as contactless cards.

The trend, coupled with the mass closure of rural bank branches, has led to worries that rural communities will soon be left without access to the means to acquire physical cash.

However, last week Link announced a new “super premium” fee to be paid by banks that they say will “significantly increase” payments to ATM operators where cash machines are situated in remote and less well-off parts of the country.