The cash machine has become a cornerstone of modern life. Slip in your card, tap in your number and the money is yours, cash in hand - so long as the machine reckons your funds can stand the withdrawal.

Yet the very convenience of cash machines can be a problem, especially when a customer nips to the nearest cashpoint and finds themselves charged for taking their own money out of their own account.

The so-called "surcharges" to customers have long been a cause for grumbling discontent, with some people having to pay up to £2.50 to withdraw cash through machines other than those operated by their own bank or building society.

Barclays wants to charge rival bank customers £1 to use its cash machines while keeping them free for its own customers, and has the backing of other banks and building societies.

Though Barclays argues that this figure would help cover the costs of running cash machines, it is surely another banking rip-off - especially if the customer has, for example, only withdrawn a small amount, perhaps £10.

Don Cruickshank, the former boss of Oftel, has been leading an investigation into such charges, and has come up with a perfectly fair and sensible suggestion. In a draft proposal, Mr Cruickshank says that banks should be able to charge a maximum of 30 pence for each such transaction.

This proposal has been backed by Britain's biggest building society, the Nationwide, whose chief executive, Brian Davis, argues strongly that "unrestricted surcharging is socially exclusive and reduces competition and consumer choice".

Mr Davis also suggests that some banks have been guilty of "profiteering" through cash machine charges, and we can only agree. After all, cash machines are convenient for the bank as well as the customer, cutting down on queues and staffing costs inside banks.

And as most banks make enormous profits, while also cutting jobs, it seems reasonable to limit cash-point charges to 30 pence.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.