Families on one council estate struggled to afford food when their cash machine began charging fees - but now tell of their victory in their fight for free cash.
The estate, in the Barton region of Oxford, is one of the most deprived in the country and has a community heavily reliant on physical money.
Until late 2018 the community had a free ATM in a shopping parade, but this started to charge a 99p fee per transaction. This then rose to £1.75.
The fee meant many of the residents struggled, according to the community association secretary Sue Holden, 73.
Holden was the newsagent for the area for decades until she retired in 2006, and knows what the fees meant for the poorest residents of Barton.
She said: "The impact of that fee was that people ended up with less cash in their pockets to spend - less disposable income. That charge could make the difference between having something to eat for teatime or not."
The nearest free machine was located a four-mile round trip away, making it impossible for many to get to except by bus - which would charge working-age adults anyway.
Not only this, but the free machine was in a much richer area, where the average resident was a lot more able to afford a transaction fee.
While some younger, urban communities almost never use cash, Holden said physical money is vital to Barton.
She said: "We're very much a cash society here. We have a very high amount of older people. You talk to people about debit or credit cards and they just freeze. Many have only worked with cash, and will until their dying day."
But the ATM charging a fee hit poor families in another way.
When the machine was free, Holden said many of the Barton residents would take out whatever they had in their account in one go.
Many then ended up spending the money without budgeting, leaving them worse off.
The community association convinced many to take out small amounts of cash when they needed it and to budget - improving their quality of life by reducing their spending.
But this advice was torpedoed when the only cash machine started to charge.
Has your community struggled with fee-charging cashpoints? Email sam.barker@reachplc.com
Suddenly it made more financial sense to take out larger amounts of cash and pay one fee, rather than pay a fee every time for smaller amounts.
Holden had had enough. She heard that communities could petition cash machine network Link for a free ATM, under a scheme in launched in October 2019.
She said: "I had become aware of the problems it was causing for some families so I contacted Link, who were brilliant."
Link sent someone out to see if the area really did need a free machine - and quickly realised that it did, installing one in a local shop.
"It was a moment of community triumph, and we were absolutely delighted," Holden said. "There were lots of smiling people."
The Link scheme has had 4,000 requests and has installed 57 free machines so far, which have issued around £50million in cash.
To be eligible for a free ATM, communities must have no way of getting cash without being charged. They can petition Link for a free machine or ask their MP or council.
Why are so many cashpoints charging now?
Normally a cash machine is free to use because the ATM firm is paid a fee for every withdrawal by debit or credit card companies.
But in July 2018 Link began to cut these 'interchange fees', meaning many free machines had to charge or close.
In October 2019 consumer group Which? warned that Britain could lose 13% of its free machines as a result of the fee changes.
