Having cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More in your wallet can prove to be extremely useful. This was especially true in Switzerland on Tuesday May 24th when the country’s largest telecom provider, Swisscom, experienced a nationwide disruption to its network: cash appeared to be the only payment methodSee Payment instrument. More that was still up and running.
As a result, a large number of ATM machines where down in the cities of Lausanne and Zurich while shopkeepers and retailers all over Switzerland where unable to accept card payments.
The network failure lasted a few hours and went as far as causing Swisscom’s cable and IP phone services to be down. The 3G and 4G mobile phone networks were unaffected.
The causes of the disruption are yet unknown, but it’s a live demonstration of cash’s accessibility and immunity to technological breakdowns or failures.