The need for cash highlighted in just 20 minutes of panic.

Just seen a news article from the Sky News website that shows how much we rely on, and would be up a certain creek without a paddle if we didn't have any spare cash with us.

Failures in card payment systems has caused "chaos" at supermarket checkouts across the country.

Over 870 branches of Sainsbury's were affected by the problems with credit and debit cards.

The difficulties lasted for about 20 minutes at 2.30pm, according to a spokesman for the chain.

He said many other retailers experienced a similar problem.

"Many retailers across the country were affected by an issue with card payment systems today," he said.

Source: Chaos At Supermarkets As Card Payments Fail

Twenty minutes of not being able to use plastic and chaos ensues. How sad is that?

Yes i know this is not quite a shtf scenario, but you would be amazed at the amount of people who just rely on their cash cards.

Now picture this happening in every store across your area, especially the food stores. Hopefully the banks don't have a problem whilst this is going on, otherwise you'll find yourself cursing because you never bothered to keep a little cash back at home for times like these.

I like the comfortable feeling that having some cash stashed away here gives me. Some small notes and plenty of change so there would be no problem dealing with shops that don't accept cards.

Whether you prepare for petty hiccups like this, or larger scale scenarios where there is no power, real cash tucked away will be a gift some day.

CX.

Yeah. I learned my lesson when the magnetic strip went bad on my primary card. I did have a couple other credit cards on me, so no big problem but it got me thinking about just this type of scenario. Henceforth, I keep a sum of cash in my wallet, another smallish stash in my vehicle with the spare tire and another, more sizeable, amount with my passport/important papers/extra meds/ammo/mre's at home.

This happened recently in the US as well - it lasted several hours if I recall. Makes me wonder what is going on. People without cash on them just had to leave what they had chosen to buy just as we would if they shut down on a larger scale for a longer period of time. I always have a little cash handy but am beginning to think we should all have more on hand as we can't rely on computers working in a crisis. Thanks for alerting us to this - I am thinking about this even more so now as we all should. I am curious to see what others are saying on this and if it is happening elsewhere.

My mom and dad were adults in the depression of the 30's. One thing I always found fascinating with them was the amount of cash they always kept in their house. Several thousands at any given time. Everyone knew about this, and they always gave loans to family and friends, in need. Mom had her little book tracking everything.

They always told me they didn't trust banks, even though they used the same one over 60 years for their primary checking and savings. Dad had accounts set up in 4 different banks when he died. Thank God mom knew about them.

I think this type of action was a generational thing from the economic troubles and bank failures from the late 20's through 30's. My aunts and uncles all did the same thing.

Hardly anyone in our family does this now. Part of it is the change of times and more crime.

Something like that happened a couple of weeks ago here in Kansas City, and it was quite the tense scene. Not quite chaos, but definitely a supermarket full of angry, confused people. Thankfully, I have stopped using banks for anything but a free way of cashing my paychecks.

Lol it says 'Chaos' in the title, but in the actual report it just talks about angry twitter posts.
'chaos' eh...?

reply to post by hinky


To have cash around in those days might have been safe - maybe not so much so these days. This past summer a boy shot his grandfather for the cash he had in the house, this happened just 2 doors from me. If one does have cash around it would be best not to let too many know it. With that said we can't rely on debit and credit cards working - so keep cash but hide it good and shhhhhhhh re where you put it.

Unfortunately though, real cash can also be a liability.

It can be stolen, never traced (and thus never recovered)...so there's a real risk involved.
Please don't carry large amounts of cash on you. (i.e. never carry more than you can afford to lose).

this also happened approx three weeks ago in the uk. bank atms,online and checkout were all affected on a saturday afternoon. i believe it took a few hours to sort it. it was the same bank affected. maybe the system was overwhelmed because of the sheer volume of transactions or maybe someone installed a skimmer program that takes 2 or 3 pence out of everybodys accounts. would you overlook the pennies by thinking your account has been rounded down? it has happened before and the culprits did bird as i recall.
regards fakedirt

Originally posted by Gazrok
Unfortunately though, real cash can also be a liability.

It can be stolen, never traced (and thus never recovered)...so there's a real risk involved.
Please don't carry large amounts of cash on you. (i.e. never carry more than you can afford to lose).

Most definately.

I was thinking more about keeping a decent amount at home, and not in the usual places either.

Buried in an easy to reach place in the garden somewhere maybe, or somewhere else totaly unthinkable in the house.

CX.