Jim,
What if the banks were closed for a Bank Holiday by the President, for let’s say one week. Question: Could one still use their credit card? Or is the system intertwined? Keep up the great work you do and service you provide the world. – David V
JWR Replies: In the event of a national banking crisis and bank “holiday”, I predict that all bank doors will be closed and that every form of electronic money will be inoperative (ATM [1]s, debit cards, credit cards, et cetera.) You might be able to write checks at some local businesses, but don’t depend on being able to do so. There is even a smaller chance that some “Mom & Pop” stores will manually run a credit card slip for later processing, but that would be horribly naive of them. Nearly all merchants now use “Point of Purchase” (POP) electronic processing via a phone line to confirm credit card purchases, but the POP systems will surely be “down.”)
If you can afford to, I recommend that you keep at least $1,000 in greenbacks on hand at all times.