By Julian Knight BBC News Online personal finance reporter

Could free cash withdrawal be on the way out for some?

In 2000, consumer groups faced down Britain's big banks over plans to charge consumers for using their ATM cash machines.

Hit with a barrage of bad publicity banks dropped plans to charge for cash withdrawal.

As a result, bank customers can use much of the UK's 49,000 ATM network safe in the knowledge that they will not incur a fee.

However, charging for cash withdrawal has been creeping in by the back door.

Sale agreed

Firms such as Cardpoint and Moneybox have been installing ATM machines that charge - situating them in petrol stations and convenience stores the length and breadth of the country.

lot of bank customers in rural locations and deprived inner city areas have had their bank branches taken away now they face losing free ATM access Mick McAteer, Consumers' Association

In 2000 there were less than 1,000 independent charging ATMs, now they number more than 13,000.

And they charge up to �1.50 a time to get cash out.

The march of fee charging ATMs seems to be entering a new phase.

Banking group HBOS, formed after the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has agreed to sell its entire stock of 800 non-branch based ATMs to Cardpoint.

Mark Hemmingway, HBOS spokesman, told BBC News Online the move was essential to cut costs.

"These ATMs cost a fortune to maintain. Our customers will still have access to 2,700 branch based ATMs and can use any machine on the Link network."

Costly wedge

But consumer groups are alarmed that the HBOS move could herald the replacement of thousands of non-branch based bank ATMs with fee charging independent ATM's.

ATMs: How the banks compare HSBC 2,453 branch 520 non-branch Lloyds TSB 3,200 branch 800 non-branch RBS/ NatWest 3,750 branch 1,550 non-branch Barclays 3,296 branch 604 non-branch

"This could represent the thin end of the wedge," Mick McAteer, principal policy adviser at the Consumers' Association, told BBC News Online.

"A lot of bank customers in rural locations and deprived inner city areas have had their bank branches taken away now they face losing free ATM access.

"The impact on people on low incomes having to pay �1.50 every time they withdraw cash doesn't bear thinking about."

But Mr Hemmingway said consumers were warned on-screen that a withdrawal would incur a fee.

"Like most things in life these ATMs offer a trade-off between convenience and cost, " he said.

"People who are stuck may be best off using cash back in shops and restaurants instead of using fee charging ATMs."