I’ve never been a fan of the whole “cashless society” idea.

I can definitely see the benefits of tap-and-go. It gets you out the supermarket faster. And I can see why someone working at Subway would rather not handle cash in between stuffing sandwiches and toasting footlongs.

The concept of cashless has its advantages, but as Australia and other nations rapidly switch to a life free of notes and coins, I can’t help but think that many of us are blithely throwing away our freedom of choice and financial security in favour of a system that doesn’t appear to have any fail-safes in place if something goes wrong.

And if there’s any certainty in life, it’s that things can and will go wrong.

Like they have for me today.

A few months ago, I left Australia to do a little travelling. I took three forms of payment with me: a debit card, a credit card and cash. I informed both of my banks I would be travelling and sent them a detailed itinerary of where I was going.

In the third week of my trip, my credit card, which had been used for tap-and-go purchases and to book one night in a nice hotel as a bit of a treat, was cancelled.

I only found this out when it was declined repeatedly and I rang the bank to find out what was going on.

Apparently, there was some kind of issue.

What was the issue? Had my card been skimmed? Was my account flagged because I had booked a 3+ star hotel instead of a hostel?

No idea.

The bank refused to elaborate on what the “issue” was.

It seemed that I, as the cardholder, was not permitted to know such things.

Now, could the bank have sent an email or some kind of online confirmation to give me a heads up about the “issue” before they outright cancelled my card?

Absolutely!

But why bother with that when it’s so much easier to turn a valid payment method into a plastic bookmark with the press of a button.

There was some good news though – I would be getting a brand new credit card.

It would arrive at my home in 7-10 working days. The home where I was not currently living, because I was (and still am) overseas.

But that’s not the bank’s problem.

This was unfortunate, but I still had my debit card and some cash.

Worried that the same thing could happen to my ATM card, I reached out to my other bank. I let them know what had occurred and gave them another detailed itinerary. Dates. Countries. The full enchilada.

3 weeks later, I’m in ICON SIAM in Bangkok. It’s one of the biggest, swankiest malls around. It’s not really my taste, but it does have a lot of banks inside. Big, brightly lit, banks with spotless ATM vestibules and lots of security. Perfect for a solo traveller in need of some more cash.

So I saddle up to one of their clean machines, slip in my card and…it’s gone.

Swallowed whole.

I call over an employee. She hits CANCEL on the machine a few times. Waits. And when it’s clear the machine is not going to spit my card back up, she makes a phone call.

The good news is I can get my card back…in 2-3 days when a technician comes to service the machine.

What am I supposed to do for money until then? Well, that’s not the bank’s problem. If an ATM swallows your card that’s on you.

Why would you want cash anyway?

It’s all cashless nowadays.

What are you, a Luddite?

I am then told to cancel my card.

The same card they want me to come back for in 3 days.

I tell them to go ahead and keep the card. Then I look into alternate payment methods. But as it turns out, you can’t set up Apple Pay or Google pay without a functioning ATM or credit card.

Which is probably for the best.

I don’t want to use my phone as a method of payment.

What happens if it’s stolen?

Or hacked?

Or I buy a frappe instead of a latte one morning, and this deviation from the norm is flagged as an “issue” and suddenly I’m locked out of my bank account?

It won’t be the bank’s problem.

Or Apple’s.

Or Google’s.

It will be my very big problem.

Not unlike the one I have now.

Fortunately, right now, I still have cash and most places in Thailand accept cash. As they do in Australia. Businesses might be losing their taste for it, they might strongly prefer that you tap-and-go, but cash is still legal tender and no one is going to turn it down.

But what happens when that’s no longer the case?