A retiree who lives in Madrid ‘fights’ with an ATM by not knowing what option you have to choose from the many that appear on the screen, not fully understand what each one means. A situation that is repeated often and has to face resignation and tranquility, especially since the ATMs began to adapt to the new regulations that force them to update.
Roberto is queued in front of a cashier while he has his experience with these machines to do banking operations, also giving a practical solution, “there would be a disk that would talk to you and tell you the steps you have to go.” Although a joke seems, his comment is a reflection of what many of our elders live every day when they have to perform any bank operation.
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According to their experience, every time they are going to get cash, it becomes an adventure, since the complexity of the banks can with them, preventing them from advancing just like technology. Hence, the use of cash is also more and more, which seems to tend to disappear.
The law requires ATMs to adapt
But this problem has not been ignored and banks have already made modifications in their automatic systems. Based on the last regulations, included in Law 11/2023, the new ATMs are obliged to include improvements such as more legible letters, voice instructions, hearing aid compatibility, braille and an adequate height for people with reduced mobility.
These changes are more than necessary for elderly people, according to Juana for Telemadrid, another retiree who lives in the capital. However, this pensioner does not believe at all in change, since he confesses: “I think they are doing something, but we don’t know what it is, maybe they put it smaller instead of bigger.”
And they no longer endure this situation: “It is very complicated, there are words that are not understood, the lyrics are very small and it is not understood and we always have to ask for help from inside to come out, so they are working more outside than inside.”
Juana, like many other pensioners, needs help to get money every time you visit a cashier still with all the improvements to adapt them to older people. Roberto thinks the same. He also ensures that it is not easy for older people, and that is why he insists that the best solution would be for the cashier itself to explain step by step what to do.
Less and less old ATMs and bank branches
Today, about 47,000 old ATMs in Spain are still in operation, which will continue to operate for several years. Meanwhile, the new ones are getting little by little, but their use still generates doubts among the elderly.
However, we must bear in mind that virtually all banking entities operating in Spain started a plan to reduce the number of banking offices for a few years. A few years ago there were more than 45,000 branches throughout the country and now there are less than half, which does not help the elderly, which is increasingly difficult to treat in person with banking staff to carry out their operations.
Due to these new measures, this group expects to receive facilities so that every time they have to make a management they do not feel unable every time they start looking at a screen.