The pandemic brought a shift toward digital payments, but now it seems more and more consumers are turning back to cold hard cash to help budget during the cost-of-living crisis. Britain’s Post Office, which has 2,700 ATM locations across the country, said its branches handled a record £801m in cash withdrawals in July. That’s up almost 8% compared to June and 20% from the same period last year.
These estimates came the same day the Bank of England unleashed its biggest interest-rate hike since 1995 and predicted inflation would peak at more than 13% in October, eroding people’s spending power.