Home - Why going cash-free is a very bad idea by Peter Blue

There is a lot of talk about going cash-free. This means that every payment is done electronically with no need for notes and coins at all. On the surface this seems like a great idea; no messing about for the right change, etc. Unfortunately there are many big problems with it :-

• Privacy every payment, along with time, location and item(s) are recorded. There is a good chance that information is passed/sold to other organisations.
  
  
• Reliability Anyone paying attention to the news can't help but notice all the stories about bank IT systems going down. It seems things are getting so bad that many recommend that you always have cash available.
  
  
  
  • 2018 - Visa system goes down - ComputerWeekly
    
    
  • 2018 - TSB Meltdown - The Register
    
    
  • 2017 - SWIFT warns banks as hack sophistication grows - Reuters
    
    
  • 2016 - 2015–2016 SWIFT banking hack - Wikipedia
    
    
  • 2015 - RBS/NatWest meltdown - Independent
    
    
  • 2014 - Lloyds and TSB customers unable to pay or withdraw cash from ATMs - The Guardian
    
    
  • 2014 - JPMorgan Chase hack was a simple two-factor auth fail - The Register
    
    
  • 2013 - NatWest hit by system failure less than a year after last outage - The Guardian
    
    
  • 2012 - RBS meltdown blamed on human error and cuts - Channel 4