I mean, it kinds seems inevitable to me. Books has become e-books. Cash is becoming digital transfers. China has done it. The west is mostly doing card-swipes. One day, that transition will be complete, and cash would be phased out.
What happens then? Think like the power outage in Spain recently. Some people had cash. But in 20-40 years. There might not even be any cash in existence. What then?
What if, instead of a few hours, its a few days? Or weeks?
I guess riots break out all around the world?
(Seriously, has none of the politicians ever thought about this? Where are the backups? Are we just going full “YOLO” on the reliance on the power grid?)
Werd the banks in my state are still required to have bank books specifically for this reason.
Presumably even there though they check the details from your book against the computer system, to not only check that the book is accurate and that the branch has enough cash on hand to fulfil your request? The computer system that has had no power for a week.
They are there as a backup, for if the bank loses power or Internet. Normally they just use the computer system.
So you have to use them every time you use the bank, I’m assuming this also means that these accounts don’t allow you to do any kind of internet or telephone banking.
I feel like you aren’t actually reading my comments?
I am.
I just don’t understand how they can work.
If you don’t use them for every transaction how do they stay synchronised with the bank’s records of how much you have in your account?
When the power is out and the bank can’t check their computer, what’s to stop someone turning up with a bank book that says they have £1 in it and saying that there’s more because they transferred it online before the power went out? Or, of course, the book saying they have more than they do because they took some out before power went out?