Posted on 06/23/2012 1:14:44 PM PDT by Kartographer
Over the past week, various entities controlled by bailed out UK-bank RBS, focusing primarily on NatWest, have seen clients unable to access virtually any of their funds, perform any financial transactions, or even get an accurate reading of their assets. The official reason: "system outage"... yet as the outage drags on inexplicably for the 5th consecutive day, the anger grows, as does speculation that there may be more sinister reasons involved for the cash hold up than a mere computer bug.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
PING!
Just think how much people use their debit cards now days. I can’t even remember the last time I brought gasoline with cash or paid my utility bills with cash or a check. Now imagine your bank has shutdown like this one with no warning. How much cash do you have right now?
If credit and debit cards were suddenly cut off I would expect things would quickly go as described in this article:
An event at my grocery store [An ATS member’s experience].
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2314019/posts
Article is also in my Preparedness Manual which can be download for free at:
http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf
This bank has been around since 1727. Nothing about the ATM problem is mentioned on the wiki entry for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Bank_of_Scotland
Maybe because they didn’t have ATM’s in 1727? ;-)
Try looking at the bank’s own website:
http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal.ashx
Aside from the ‘failing banks’ scenario, a mere one or two days loss of the Internet would be more than a slight ‘inconvenience’.
Think about how much of our daily business is dependent upon this relatively new ‘system’...
In short, keeping cash-on-hand as part of your normal Preps, is something to consider.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/08/ap-panetta-visit-offutt-air-base-nebraska-080511/
I imagine there are preppers who have cash for several months (years?) and others who have enough credit to make it until a couple days before payday. Personally, I think one of the best preps you can make is to set aside even 5% of your monthly expenses each month, in cash, in a secure but accessible location. I see no reason to go into details on where and how to store the cash, but even outside a SHTF situation, the emergency fund would get a family through the awkwardness of a glitch like this. It’s all about the Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared”.
Posted in the comments at ZH, is a YouTube link and the guy is talking about how the EBT cards are NOT working in California (that day-June 21st when vid made.)
Anyone heard of this?
Well I looked to the west and I don’t see any smoke so I say it’s not true, but then maybe the smoke hasn’t cleared Arizona yet. ;-)
The problem can be looked at one of two ways.
RBS either has a legitimate problem with the computer network that serves their ATM network or this is an excuse that they are using to try and prevent a run on their bank.
Better you owe them money instead of them owing you in a case like this.
“Aside from the ‘failing banks’ scenario, a mere one or two days loss of the Internet would be more than a slight ‘inconvenience’.”
Agree...and that’s even true with GPS. Back when LightSquared was in the news with a system that might have disabled 80% of GPS receivers in the world, people on this site even started to panic. It winds up that HUGE swaths of the economy would simply freeze the moment GPS stopped...almost as bad as an EMP. I mean, does anyone think that UPS or the Postal Service have paper maps anymore?
Thanks for the link...
time to run to Sam’s.
The only “cash” I have on hand is a few boxes of junk silver.
I don’t use my debit card. I use credit cards and then pay them off online. I rarely need cash.
Wow, my experience on this is actually relevant, if not interesting.
I am an RBS customer (through Natwest).
Yep, they are still having account presentation issues - but money is going in and out of my account just fine. I can still buy stuff online. Not seeing a problem here.
There was a glitch at a gas station near me, all cards rejected. A number of people were agitated but no one fighting yet. I held up a $20 to get the clerks attention. “Do the pumps still work?” I asked. He said yes and gave me $20 credit on the pump. I filled up, watched a guy get cigarettes and lotto tickets with cash. A line started at the ATM.
It might have been a mini-riot if the ATM hadn’t worked.
It’s mind boggling that they could have no isolated “hot spare” system. Unless there is actual active internal sabotage or some kind of massive hack attack going on, I’d say that a lot of people high-up in their IT department are going to have to leave, and, if they are lucky, go back to fixing PC’s.
The liability potential is pretty serious; I notice on their website that payments to others are affected and that they will “pay any penalties involved”. That won’t help if you wind up with a lot of black marks on your credit.
I keep several hundred bucks in a bug out kit.
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