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Personal cash deposits totalled £1.42bn in January. This was just short of the all-time record set for a single month which was in September 2022 (+ £372,000).
Personal cash deposits were up almost 8% month-on-month (£1.32bn, December 2023) and up 2.5% year-on-year (£1.39bn, January 2023).
Business cash deposits totalled £1.14bn in January, the highest amount in a single month since June 2023 (£1.17bn), up almost 4% month-on-month (£1.10bn, December 2023) and up 3.3% year-on-year (£1.11bn, January 2023).
The all-time record for business cash deposits in a single month was set in August 2022 (£1.2bn).
In December, Post Offices 11,500 branches saw a record £930m worth of personal cash withdrawals. December is always the busiest month of the year for cash withdrawals in the run-up to Christmas.
In January, personal cash withdrawals over the counter totalled £778m. This was up 10% year on year (£709m, January 2023).
Ashwin Patel, postmaster for Royal Wootton Bassett Post Office for 12 years, has recently opened a Banking Hub in the Wiltshire town where all the many banks and building societies, that once existed, have all closed. The highly experienced Postmaster has also opened a much-needed Post Office in West Swindon, inside a former bank premises, restoring Post Office services to this community too.
Patel, said: “Not everyone is able to do online banking because they don’t have the technology or the know-how or they need personal reassurance, advice or to be pointed in the right direction.
“Banking Hubs and Post Offices are meeting real banking needs in communities and giving people the freedom to still pay for services with cash and for businesses to still be willing to accept cash, when there are places nearby to do banking.
“One launderette owner, came in with £3000 in coins to pay in as it was easy to pop in.”
Postmistress Nidhi Prashar, who has served Post Office customers in Surrey for 30 years at Oxted as well as serving customers for six years at her Epsom branch, said: “In Oxted there are no banks left and we meet the banking needs of the community – so it’s non-stop banking customers. In Epsom there are lots of banks and building societies, but we are open longer hours than all of them, so for some customers they find it more convenient to come here.
“I love being a postmistress. It’s the people that you meet that make it so great. There aren’t many jobs where you have this great interaction with people. People come in regularly and you build up a relationship. Customers become like extended family.”
Ross Borkett, Post Office banking director, said: “Postmasters and their teams keep their branches open long hours so that millions of people can access their cash conveniently and securely and they value face-to-face interaction when doing their everyday banking.
“Over 13 million cash transactions took place in January and we will continue to do all we can to support people to continue to do their everyday banking with their local postmaster.”
