Financial Crisis: Bank and Payment Outages

Financial Crisis and Payment Failures

Money problems in a crisis come in two forms. The fast one: cards, terminals, ATMs or your bank's app stop working for hours or days. The slow one: prices rise, income falls or a job is lost. Both are easier with the same preparation: some cash, more than one way to pay, your papers in order and a small reserve.

1. Before

Be able to pay without the network

Keep cash at home in small notes and coins, enough for a few days of food, medicine and transport. See why cash still matters.
Have more than one way to pay: cards from two different banks if possible, and a physical card as well as your phone.
Write down your bank's emergency number and your account details on paper.

Put your papers in order

Keep copies of ID, insurance, contracts, property papers and recent bank statements, on paper in a waterproof bag and in a secure digital copy.
Make a list of your accounts, debts, automatic payments and subscriptions.
Make sure a trusted person knows where these papers are.

Build a reserve

Save an emergency fund, step by step, to cover essential expenses for a period without income.
Know your deposit guarantee. In the EU, deposits are protected up to 100,000 euros per person per bank. Norway protects up to 2 million kroner.
Keep your home kit stocked. Food at home is a reserve too.

2. During

Use your cash for essentials first: food, water, medicine, fuel.
Follow your bank and the financial authority for information. Do not act on rumours in social media.
Expect scams. Nobody from your bank, the police or the government will ask you to move money to a "safe account" or to give codes. See Cyberattacks and digital outages.
Avoid panic buying and hasty financial decisions.
If income falls, contact your bank, landlord and creditors early. Most have arrangements for people who ask before they miss a payment.