Aussies told to carry cash or risk going hungry
Announcement posted by Cash Welcome 22 Jan 2021
Consumers and retailers simply cannot rely on eftpos systems to work. Some people are loading up trolleys of food and essentials only to find their cards are not working or shop eftpos systems are ‘down.’
Recent Eftpos system outages have affected:
- At least 10,000 retailers using Tyro eftpos terminals, leaving some without card payments for up to two weeks during January.
- Thousands of People’s Choice Credit Union customers, mainly in South Australia have been unable to access their accounts for up to two days this week.
- A few hundred Commonwealth Bank customers on the 21 January as reported by DownDetector.com.au.
- A small number of ANZ Bank customers on 21 January (DownDetector.com.au).
These are just the latest instances of regular outages from essential bank and eftpos systems that affect Australians.
“Every Australian should be carrying around $100 of cash just in case their bank or financial institution, or the system used by their favourite supermarket or shop, crashes and fails,” said Jason Bryce, consumer affairs journalist and spokesperson for the Cash Welcome campaign.
“You can so easily be left without food just because suddenly a computer system somewhere has failed.
“Aussies simply need to get into the habit of carrying cash in their pocket again, as a safeguard against the insecurity of cashless payment systems.”
“Australian polymer banknotes are the world’s best cash technology,” said Jason, “Banks and card companies are yet to invent a more reliable technology than cash.
“No wonder 10,000 Aussies have signed my petition, with very little promotion.”
For more comments or information: Jason Bryce, Journalist - 0428 777 727 media@cashwelcome.org
Sandra Smith ATM Industry Association sandra.smith@atmia.com 0424 300 660