British ATMs had less work to do this Christmas than last year, according to Barclays Bank’s annual seasonal survey of its ATM network

British ATMs had less work to do this Christmas than last year, according to Barclays Bank’s annual seasonal survey of its ATM network, one of the largest in the UK. Cash withdrawals from the nearly 4,000 ATMs owned by Barclays Bank and its Woolwich subsidiary were down 8% in the run up to Christmas from the same period of 2001. Barclays spokeswoman Lorraine Bucknall attributed the fall in cash withdrawals to greater use of credit and debit cards in stores. “People have gotten used to paying with a card in shops now, so they don’t need to run to the ATM so often,” Bucknall said. Coincidentally, Barclays’ credit card arm Barclaycard announced that spending by its UK Visa and MasterCard cardholders was up by 7% in the week leading up to Christmas compared to the same week of 2001. For December 2002 as a whole, Barclaycard customers’ spending on their cards was up 5.3% year-on-year. Bucknall said she didn’t think people were being deterred from using ATMs by the stories about cash machine fraud which have become a regular feature of the British press in recent months.