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Friday is set to be the busiest day of 2023 for cash machine withdrawals, cash access and ATM network Link predicts.

Link said that, with a four-day break ahead, comprised of the two weekend days followed by two bank holidays, ATM use is expected to peak on Friday – the last working day before Christmas for many people.

Link has also been seeing a trend of people tending to take out more money when they visit ATMs, even though they may be visiting cash machines less often.

Pre-coronavirus pandemic, the average withdrawal value was £67, but this has increased to now stand at around £86. Over Christmas, it is expected to jump to £110.

Graham Mott, director of strategy at Link, said: “Christmas is always the busiest period for cash machines with lots of people withdrawing money to pay for shopping, a round or two at the pub or as a gift.”

Mr Mott added: “We expect tomorrow (Friday December 22) to be the busiest day at cash machines across the UK.

“We’re forecasting around £450 million to be withdrawn. That’s significantly lower than the record back in 2017, when we took out over £760 million in one day, but significantly higher than the average this year of £220 million.”

Link’s busiest day ever was on December 22 2017, when a total of £766 million was withdrawn.

YouGov research carried out for Link also asked people what financial gifts they would prefer to receive over Christmas.

Gift cards and vouchers (42%) were the most popular option in the survey, followed by cash (39%).

However, cash was found to be the most popular gift to receive for age groups under 45, in the survey of more than 2,100 people across the UK in November.

Over half (52%) of 16 to 24-year-olds surveyed would prefer to receive cash as a Christmas gift. The younger age cohort also gave a strong response to receiving money as a cheque too, with 22% responding positively – double the UK average of 11%.

The UK regions where people were most likely to say they would give a financial gift are the North West of England (42%), the East Midlands (41%) and the South West of England (41%).

London (28%) and the South West of England (32%) are the regions were people were least likely to say they would give a financial gift.