Nationwide has announced plans to ban small value cash
withdrawals at branch counters in a bid to reduce queuing
times.
The initiative, which is scheduled to come into effect in June
this year, means the minimum cash withdrawal limit for FlexAccount
and CashBuilder customers using a cash card is set to increase from
£30 to £100. The change will not apply to people with debit cards,
or those who still use a passbook.
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A statement released by Nationwide said the change will “make
our branches more efficient, help reduce queues, speed up
transactions and free up our staff time to deal with more complex
transactions.”
The statement also claims that the change will only
affect one percent of its customers, as those who have a
passbook account do not routinely withdraw small amounts of
cash.
Graeme Hughes, divisional director of Nationwide’s branch
network told the BBC’s MoneyBox programme that the changes were
necessary.
“About a third of all counter transactions are carried out by less
than eight percent of our customer base, and the other 92
percent say ‘what can you do to speed up the queues?’ So what we’re
trying to do is to look at alternative ways of dealing with these
customers,” said Hughes.
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By GlobalDataLast November financial provider, Santander imposed similar
restrictions on their passbook customers. Also in a bid to cut
their queuing times, minimum cash withdrawals over the counter were
increased to £30.
