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After hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the blackout lasted for months. I assume no one was getting any money out of ATMs or using credit/debit cards or Apple pa
by mnm1 7y ago
After hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the blackout lasted for months. I assume no one was getting any money out of ATMs or using credit/debit cards or Apple pay or anything like that. You don't have to distrust the financial system to want cash on hand. You just need to have a rudimentary understanding of the fragility of the current system. I simply cannot see a cash less society ever existing while the only alternative is powered by electricity. Electricity can fail way to easily.
- Aloha 7y agoThis is the biggest reason I keep cash around. Also, I travel on business frequently, I have my wallet and a passport wallet, and I keep some cash in each - in the passport wallet enough to get a cab out of the airport to a hotel, where presumably I can garner a room using my rewards points or have my company wire me money.
- chiph 7y agoI keep a few hundred with my hurricane supplies. After Hugo, I was without power for 10 days (which is nothing compared to what PR went through), and having some cash on hand would have made that time easier.
- samsonradu 7y agoAfter the hurricane, for the next 2-3 days there were no working ATMs (that we found) in San Juan. Luckily, we had around 120$ in cash handy which we carefully spent. After that we had to queue up for 1h+ in the torrid sun at one of the few ATMs which had any cash. If I remember well there was a limit of 100$ withdrawal.