Dyfed Thomas founded Thomas Spar in Llandysul over 30 years ago with the simple aims of making a living and serving his community. He noticed over the years that banks were closing their branches in the Welsh village where he operated and soon after, he contacted YourCash. His self-fill ATM now provides a vital service to his customers and saves him thousands of pounds a year in banking fees.
Dyfed Thomas has been running a Spar in the Welsh Village of Llandysul for the past 30 years. His mission has always been simple – to survive as a business and serve his community.
Mr Thomas’ store used to be surrounded by banks and a post office and therefore it wasn’t appealing to have an ATM onsite. It was when “the banks around me started to close that I realised my customers were often struggling with getting access to their cash” due to the limited ATMs left in the area. Having been a major part of his community for three decades, Dyfed decided that he could take responsibility for ensuring his customers retained their fundamental right of access to cash. He says, “we needed to get a cash machine in the village with the closest bank closing and their ATM being removed. I was recommended to YourCash by a friend who had received a great service.”
YourCash were happy to help as soon as Dyfed explained the situation as one of YourCash’s principles is to provide access to cash to everyone, particularly in areas that lack an ATM. A YourCash representative explained the benefits of a self-fill ATM to Dyfed including that recycling his cash internally would reduce his banking fees. Dyfed decided that this benefit would come as a bonus to his original plan and opted for the self-fill solution immediately.
Dyfed has been over the moon with the service the ATM provides and the support from YourCash. His installation process was very smooth and “the ATM was installed and serving the community in no time at all.” In fact Dyfed says, “people still come in to see if we have a cash machine, use it, then spend in-store, so it provides a great benefit in that sense.” Dyfed has had a couple of technical issues over the years and compliments the way YourCash has handled them: “I’ve had a couple of issues, one was were the notes got stuck inside the machine – an engineer was sent straight out on that occasion and it was fixed the next day. Any time that I’ve called YourCash, the staff have been very helpful and always willing to support me.” The main benefit Dyfed has seen is the result from selecting the self-fill model. He now recirculates his business’ takings internally by loading the ATM with cash on a daily basis. Dyfed says “I do the open and close procedures on the ATM myself each day, it’s very easy and takes maybe 10 minutes, so it’s definitely worth your time.” Dyfed says his businesses finances have improved since having the ATM installed, “the machine is very good for recycling my cash, it means I don’t have to deposit any cash with my bank, which saves my business around £2,500 a year. The cash that’s dispensed is also transferred to my business account very quickly, it’s ideal,” he claims.
“I would recommend YourCash,” says Dyfed. “In fact I have done so in the past, I know others that have seen the success I’ve had with the ATM and managed to do the same with their store. There are so many benefits of having a cash machine but it’s worth it just for the banking fee reduction!”
