ALTHOUGH the Reserve Bank of Australia has reported that more than $9 billion worth of cash withdrawals were made in Australia during January 2025 – a new post-COVID record for January – the Cash Welcome movement is worried about the dramatic fall-off in ATM availability.

According to the Cash Welcome campaign, the numbers show banks are pushing people towards a cashless future “against their will”.

Research from the RBA showed $9.01 billion was withdrawn by Australians during January 2025, up from $8.92 billion in January 2024, $8.97 in January 2023 and $8.4 billion in January 2022. 

Meanwhile the number of ATMs in Australia has fallen from 25,663 in December 2021 to 23,518 in December 2024 – and this is happening while banks are steadily closing their branches.

“There is no decline in the use of cash in Australia since the end of the COVID pandemic,” Cash Welcome campaign spokesperson Jason Bryce said.

“There’s a big decline in the number of bank branches and ATMs, so banks are clearly pushing us toward a cashless future, against our will.  Since COVID there has been an obvious change in behaviour around cash and payments.

“Banks and the RBA need to acknowledge that there’s plenty of demand for cash in Australia and no reason to believe that cash is disappearing.”

Consumer group Choice reported last week that 97% of 13,000 Australians surveyed support a cash mandate and 80% use cash, according to Mr Bryce.

“Banks want a cashless Australia, not business or consumers,” Mr Bryce said. “Australians want the right to choose how we pay.

“Banks must stop closing branches and ATMs and pay for the distribution of our legal tender in every town and community,” Mr Bryce said.

Cash Welcome has created a Change.org petition which already has more than 200,000 signatures calling for a cash and banking guarantee:

https://www.change.org/BankingAndCashGuarantee

RBA data on ATM cash withdrawals post-Covid

These are the monthly ATM withdrawal numbers, cut and pasted from the RBA's C4 ATM Cash Withdrawals (seasonally adjusted). Supplied by Cash Welcome campaign.

Supplied by Cash Welcome from RBA reports.

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EXPECTING the unexpected and forward planning are the keys to avoid being caught in the bridging loan cycle, according to Grow Capital CEO, Gus Gilkeson.

Mr Gilkeson said the latest ScotPac Business Finance SME Growth Index found 94% of SMEs are seeking new capital, while 29% believe they’re at risk of insolvency if they were to lose a major supplier or client.

Mr Gilkeson said while short-term loans “can and do have a place in business” they should be part of a longer-term strategy. 

“Short term bridging loans are great if they’re helping you achieve your longer-term goals,” he said. “Buying an asset for example might require short term cash for a longer-term return.

“However, if your business is constantly requiring short term funding to bridge cash flow gaps or address planning shortfalls, then you might need to reassess your business plan and determine whether you have a broader problem.

“A bridging loan should be exactly that – a bridge to get to the other side. But you need to have that pontoon on the other side in the first place.”

Credit score risk

Mr Gilkeson warned that using bridging loans too often could have a detrimental impact on a company credit score and affect future lending opportunities.

“Having multiple credit inquiries in a short space of time will have a negative impact on your commercial credit file,” Mr Gilkeson said. “Similarly, if you enter into a lending deal with a high-interest-rate short term funder, there’s a potential for mainstream funders to view that negatively and refuse you credit in future.

“It’s similar to someone who frequently uses pay-day lenders being refused a home loan by a major lender down the track. The financial institution looks at that history and thinks there may be a bigger, underlying issue.”

Mr Gilkeson said there were steps businesses could take to “avoid getting caught” in the bridging loan cycle:

• Know where your business is currently at: There are five stages of growth that businesses go through, including Existence (Startup), Survival (Viability), Success (Stabilise or Grow), Scale (Expansion) and Maturity. Where is your business sitting currently and where are you planning to be six, 12, 24 months?
• Expect the unexpected: What is the business contingency in case of personal or family illness, weather and seasonal events, or supply chain issues, for example. While all these potential scenarios are outside your control, “you can control your contingency planning and have strategies in place for if and when those scenarios come to pass”.
• Regulatory change: Mr Gilkeson said it was vital to stay up to date with industry developments and changes “so your business can be as prepared as possible, and not be caught on the hop”.
• Build buffers: Whether it be a time or monetary buffer, it’s important to give yourself and your business some wiggle room. “It’s better to over-estimate how much time or money a project will require and end up pleasantly surprised, as opposed to finding yourself running out of either and requiring that short-term bridging loan simply to get through to the end.”

Mr Gilkeson said plans for 2025 should ideally be well-advanced.

“Right now, I would expect that most business owners are already considering the end of the 24-25 financial year, what that looks like and starting to plan accordingly,” he said.

“Those that have a solid business plan are looking even further ahead – at least one to two years. This is particularly important when you consider that a potential long-term lender is going to want to see your projections for that far in advance, if not further.

“If you’re serious about securing long term finance, then you also need a long-term strategy.”

www.grow-capital.com.au

About Gus Gilkeson

Gus Gilkeson is the CEO of Grow Capital. His identifies his mission as being “to bridge the information gap between funders and those seeking finance, ensuring that the needs of both parties are clearly understood and met”. Having worked for many years in strategic business development for major banks and lenders, Gilkeson saw the difficulties SMEs had in getting business finance and wanted to change that.Now, he takes  his business financing expertise to the business owner “to help them gain funding from what’s out there”. When it’s time to take a break, he likes to spend it outdoors with his family, friends and a menagerie of animals, is an avid martial arts practitioner and volunteers with the NSW Rural Fire Service.

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FINDER has acquired Grow My Money, an Australian based cashback platform – founded by Australian female entrepreneur and gender equality advocate Pascale Helyar-Moray – that uses members’ everyday spending to contribute cash to home loans and superannuation balances.

Through Grow My Money, consumers can shop thousands of Australia’s leading brands, such as Appliances Online, Chemist Warehouse and The Good Guys by linking their credit or debit card or by shopping through the website.

Retailers offer cashback of up to 20 percent of their spend – paid automatically into the user’s nominated mortgage account or superannuation fund – chipping away at debt and boosting super balances in the process.

On average, users get 2 percent of their spending credited back to their nominated account.

When you remove housing costs, Finder data shows the average Aussie household spends $2,010 a week on living expenses. That could mean an extra $2,090 of cashback a year paid towards mortgage debt or retirement savings. 

Over 30 years, this amount contributed annually could grow a super account to $629,789*. 

CEO welcomes Grow My Money

Finder’s CEO Frank Restuccia said he was “excited to welcome Grow My Money into the Finder Group”.

“Investing for the future is so important and super and property are two of the biggest assets you can build in your life,” Mr Restuccia said.

“Grow My Money presents an exciting opportunity to acquire a fast-growing rewards platform with significant potential for further expansion.

“The Grow My Money team have successfully built a loyal customer base experiencing a boost to their long term financial position without paying an extra cent from their paycheck.”

Turning spending into a future nest egg

Pascale Helyar-Moray, founder of Grow My Money and recent recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2024 for service to business and to women’s affairs, said the platform turns necessary spending into a future nest egg.

“Aussies are doing everything they can to reduce their expenses with little left over to grow their wealth,” Ms Helyar-Moray said.

“This innovation basically means bonus money is paid into your home loan or superannuation account as you go about your life.

“As living costs skyrocket, these cashback amounts become even more meaningful.”

With women increasingly managing household finances, a substantial 66 percent of Grow My Money members are female.

Although the service was created with women in mind, it is open to everyone aged 14–75, regardless of gender or work status.

Finder data revealed that 53 percent, an estimated 11 million Aussies, did not think they would have enough in their super to get by in retirement.

This is particularly acute for women as 62 percent aren’t sure they will be able to stop working, compared to 44 percent of men. 

Ms Helyar-Moray said she wants to close the gap.

“It’s unrealistic to think you can cut back all spending, but pairing sound budgeting with monthly top-ups, can get you further ahead than you might think,” she said.

“The super balances of women don’t accurately reflect their extremely valuable contribution to society. No woman should be facing financial stress in retirement.”

Grow My Money, and its workforce, will continue to operate in its own right and brand, benefiting from sharing resources across the wider Finder Group.

www.finder.com.au

www.growmymoney.com.au

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

THERE has been a huge uptake of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) in recent years.

But according to Finder research, much of the growth is coming from Gen Y and Gen Z.

According to Graham Cooke, the head of consumer research at Finder, it’s just a lot easier for that generation. 

“It’s really been the credit option of the youth now for quite a while,” Mr Cooke told Talking Business.

“We’ve seen quite a number of young people avoid the credit card market completely and go straight to Buy Now, Pay Later because it is an easier to access credit product,” he said.

“It’s usually lower risk, you’re not opening up that huge debt trap you can potentially have with a credit card and we’ve seen a lot of young people going for By Now, Pay Later and ditching the credit card.”

Credit cards on the ‘up’ too

That said, Finder research was also showing that the cost of living crisis had pushed people closer to credit cards with up to 16,000 credit cards being added to the market every month.

However, even though BNPL was lower risk, it was not without risk.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch, there is no such thing as risk free debt,” he said.

“It’d definitely be lower risk than credit cards, but it’s not risk-free. It does give you the potential of building up a load of debt that you will have to pay back, especially if you’re not paying it back on time.

“By Now, Pay Later companies make a quarter of their profits from late fees which can build up dramatically over time.”

He said the average amount owed on BNPL systems was “north of $1000”.

“Our advice would be don’t get involved in Buy Now, Pay Later unless you’re going to pay later. That’s the key point.”

BNPL not risk-free

The point is that whoever was lending the money was taking on some risk.

“It’s a lower cost option but it’s definitely not risk-free and you need to be as aware of paying your debt back on that as you would with your credit cards,” Mr Cooke said.

He said the difference between credit card debt and BNPL debt was that with BNPL debt, there was no interest owed to the company.

“The whole balance could be considered debt to a degree because you have to pay it back. It’s not the same nature as credit card debt, it’s not as risky as credit card debt,” Mr Cooke said.

That said, there are many people who might have missed on paying, say, an electricity or gas bill because they owed so much on BNPL.

Finder research showed that one in eight Australians, or 12 percent of the population, had not paid a bill because they owed money to BNPL.

It also showed that cost of living pressures had been in the ‘extreme range’ for a couple of years. Which, he said, is leading more people to BNPL with less ‘risk’.

“So it’s the high cash rate, high interest which is making credit products like BNPL and credit cards essential,” Mr Cooke said.

www.finder.com.au

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-38-interview-with-graham-cooke-from-finder

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