We recently witnessed one of Western Europe’s worst power outages ever, with tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal going without power for 18 hours.
Incidentally, our founder was visiting Portugal during that time. What followed was an enlightening illustration of the importance of carrying cash when traveling.
As digital payments, credit cards, and debit cards have become commonplace, more than half of Americans now carry little to no cash.
Of course, traveling internationally is different. Most travelers understand the value of carrying at least some cash with them. At the very least, cash enables you to tip at a café, make a quick stop at a convenience store with a credit card minimum, or toss a few euros to a street performer.
The most common recommendation found online is to withdraw your cash from ATMs at your destination on an as-needed basis. Why bother carrying cash beforehand?
That might work in some places some of the time, but this recent outage illuminates the limitations of on-demand ATM access.
During the blackout, long lines ensued at ATMs as millions upon millions of people scrambled to get their hands on the only functional currency: cash. Worse still, many ATMs simply weren’t working at all — after all, they rely on power.
Picture the scene: no internet, no Uber, no credit card transactions, and certainly no Apple Pay. Most restaurants and shops operated on a cash-only basis, if they were operating at all. Some people resorted to hand-cranked radios to simply glean basic information about the blackout.
If you’re on vacation in a foreign country and suddenly can’t buy basic supplies or even cook, you are likely not having a wonderful time. In fact, that’s most travelers’ idea of a nightmare. But that’s exactly the situation many found themselves in during this blackout.
Now let’s contrast that with our founder’s experience, who was staying outside a major metropolitan area in a country whose language he did not speak. It won’t surprise you to learn that he likes to travel with currency acquired before his trip. Flush with euros, he was immediately able to visit a nearby store and transact in cash to acquire all the food supplies he and his fellow travelers would need for several days.
Problem solved.
This is exactly the kind of foresight and peace of mind that can save a vacation. In fact, if you’re traveling with the intent of unplugging and are well-stocked to wait out a blackout, you can transform a potential nightmare into a minor inconvenience — or even a blessing in disguise.
Hopefully, this extended, multinational blackout will remain a freak accident the likes of which we won’t see again for some time. But that’s not what the World Economic Forum and FBI say, both of whom recently reiterated the looming threat of a major power grid cyberattack.
That is the world we live in. But that doesn’t mean disaster has to catch you by surprise at the worst possible moment. Think like our founder: Don’t bet your safety on a nearby ATM. Carry some cash ahead of your trip, and travel with a renewed peace of mind.
Heading somewhere soon? Order almost any currency from us in advance of your trip to start your trip prepared.
