Fact check. We checked each claim in a widely shared post about ATMs and cash-back against the South African Reserve Bank's own Cost of Cash research and news coverage of it. Page references are to the SARB's Cost of Cash Research Report (2026).
Fact Check · SARB Cost of Cash Research 2026 · 9 Claims Checked · Oct 2026
Quick answer: Most of the numbers in the viral "goodbye to ATMs" post are accurate. They come from the SARB's 2026 Cost of Cash research, which uses 2024 data. But the headline is misleading. The research shows that cash-back at shop tills is the cheapest way to get cash. It does not show South Africans abandoning ATMs. In fact, the report says consumers still prefer ATMs, and it recommends optimising the ATM network, not replacing it.
The Claim
A post doing the rounds on social media, echoing a BusinessTech headline from 2 October 2026, says that South Africans are "saying goodbye to ATMs" and choosing supermarket tills instead. It cites a SARB report and lists a series of figures on cash-back, ATM costs and the hidden costs of accessing cash.
We went to the source: the South African Reserve Bank's Cost of Cash Research Study, published in 2026. The study was commissioned by the SARB to measure the full cost of cash, from printing banknotes to the time consumers spend in queues. It uses 2024 as its base year, so all its figures describe 2024.
The Verdict at a Glance
| Claim | Verdict |
|---|---|
| The figures come from a SARB "Cost of Cash Industry Report 2026" | Mostly true: real SARB research, slightly different name |
| More people are using till cash-back instead of ATMs | Misleading: not what the report found |
| ATMs are expensive, have queues and may be far away | Mostly true: these are real costs, not proven reasons for switching |
| Retail tills handle about R326 billion in cash withdrawals a year | True |
| The average cash-back withdrawal is about R492 | True |
| Cash-back costs 12c per R100, versus 68c at ATMs and R1.53 at branches | True |
| South Africa has about 30,634 ATMs, costing R307,590 each a year | True |
| Consumers lose billions to travel, queues and lost productivity | True |
| Shops can give small notes and coins, which ATMs generally cannot | Partly true: true for coins; unverified for notes |
Claim by Claim
1. "A new SARB Cost of Cash Industry Report 2026"
Verdict: Mostly true. The research is real and comes from the SARB. Its official title is the Cost of Cash Research Study, published with an accompanying Cost of Cash Research Report in 2026. It is not called an "industry report". More importantly, its figures are for 2024, not 2026. That matters when the post presents them as a description of what is happening now.
2. "More people are using cash-back at supermarkets and retail tills instead of ATMs"
Verdict: Misleading. This is the central claim, and the report does not support it. The research is a one-year snapshot of costs. It does not measure a trend over time, so it cannot show people moving from one channel to another.
What it does say points the other way. Under the heading "Consumers prefer ATMs", the report notes that the value of cash withdrawals and deposits handled by ATMs is about 23 times higher than at bank branches (p. 11). Its recommendation is to expand cash-back at tills and optimise ATM networks (p. 15), not to replace ATMs.
The accurate version of this claim is: cash-back at tills is the cheapest and most efficient way to get cash, and the SARB wants more of it.
3. "ATMs can be expensive, have queues, may be far away"
Verdict: Mostly true. The report confirms that these are real and large costs for consumers. Withdrawal charges alone cost South Africans an estimated R17.7 billion a year, and time spent queuing is valued at R19.5 billion (p. 7). But the report presents these as costs of accessing cash in general, not as reasons people gave for switching away from ATMs.
4. "Retail tills handle about R326 billion in cash withdrawals every year"
Verdict: True. The report puts the total value of cash-back at point of sale at R326 billion (p. 13). That is roughly 663 million cash-back transactions. The report lists the volume as "R663 million", which appears to be a typo, since R326 billion divided by R492 is about 663 million transactions.
5. "The average cash-back withdrawal is around R492"
Verdict: True. The report gives an average cash-back value of R492 per transaction (p. 13).
6. "POS cash-back costs about 12c per R100, compared with 68c at ATMs and R1.53 at bank branches"
Verdict: True. These are the report's cost-per-R100 figures for each channel (p. 15):
| Channel | Cost per R100 of cash | SARB's assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Retailer cash-back at till | R0.12 | Most cost-efficient, because it uses existing retail infrastructure |
| ATMs (bank and independent) | R0.68 | On par with the average, thanks to scale |
| Bank branches | R1.53 | Least efficient, because of branch and staff overheads |
| Average across all channels | R0.65 |
Note that these are the costs to the system of providing cash, not the fees you pay. What you are charged depends on your bank and account.
7. "South Africa has around 30,634 ATMs, costing an estimated R307,590 per ATM each year"
Verdict: True. The report counts 30,634 ATMs in 2024: 21,443 run by commercial banks and about 9,200 by independent ATM deployers. It gives an average annual cost of R307,590 per ATM (p. 11). It also counts about 2,500 bank branches, each costing about R1.4 million a year for cash-related operations.
8. "Consumers spend billions travelling to cash-access points and lose money through queues and lost productivity"
Verdict: True. The report estimates the total cost of cash to consumers at R88.5 billion a year, widely rounded to R90 billion in news reports. About half of it is hidden in time, travel and crime (p. 7–8):
| Cost to consumers | Per year |
|---|---|
| Time spent queuing and transacting | R19.5 billion |
| Withdrawal charges | R17.7 billion |
| Deposit charges | R13.3 billion |
| Travel costs (taxi fares and fuel) | R12.5 billion |
| Cash-related crime and losses | R12.0 billion |
| Travel time | R8.3 billion |
| Retailers' cash costs passed on in prices | R3.9 billion |
| Interest forgone on cash held | R1.3 billion |
| Total | R88.5 billion |
The burden falls hardest on the poorest. Consumers earning up to R1,250 a month spend about 5% of their income on the cost of using cash, compared with 1% for those earning more than R20,000 (p. 16).
9. "Supermarkets and informal retailers can give customers R10s, R20s, R50s and coins, which ATMs generally cannot"
Verdict: Partly true. ATMs dispense banknotes, not coins, so the point about coins holds. The report also highlights how much everyday life depends on small-denomination notes and coin, especially for taxi fares, where paying with a R100 or R200 note is a recipe for trouble (p. 24). It also notes how important a float of small notes and coins is to retailers.
However, the report does not compare which notes ATMs and tills dispense, and we could not find an official source on which denominations South African ATMs pay out. The claim about notes is plausible but unverified.
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What the Report Actually Recommends
The SARB's message is not "goodbye ATMs". It is that cash is here to stay and needs to become cheaper and easier to access. Cash still makes up about 56% of consumer transactions by volume, and the survey found that 40% of consumers expect to keep preferring cash for payments in future (p. 17). Alongside the research, the SARB's Cash Smart Strategy proposes:
- Expanding cash-back at points of sale, the cheapest access channel.
- Optimising, not shrinking, ATM networks, including a framework for more white-label ATMs.
- A national cash utility to share infrastructure and reduce duplication.
- Measures to prevent "cash deserts", where communities are left without access to cash.
The Bottom Line
The numbers in the viral post are largely right. The story built around them is not. South Africans are not saying goodbye to ATMs: ATMs remain the backbone of cash access, and the SARB wants them optimised and supplemented, not replaced. What the research does show is that shop tills are by far the cheapest way to get cash, and that accessing cash costs South Africans close to R90 billion a year, most painfully for the poorest households.
So the post's closing plea, "we still need those ATMs", is one the SARB's own research would agree with.
Sources
- South African Reserve Bank: Cost of Cash Research Study and Report (2026)
- BusinessTech: South Africans saying goodbye to ATMs (2 October 2026)
- EWN: SAns are paying about R90bn a year to access cash (16 September 2026)
- Sunday Times: Cash is still king in SA, and consumers pay dearly for it (18 September 2026)
- ITWeb: SARB shifts approach to cash
Cover photo: Eduardo Soares on Unsplash
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