How to stay cashless when the crisis hits
16 May 2025
Would you be able to buy food and medicine if the internet suddenly went down and you could only rely on the cash in your wallet? Many of us wouldn’t, as cashless payments like Apple Pay or debit cards have become the norm.
Card payments depend on functioning international data links and if internet connections are lost, so are cashless payments. Just a few weeks ago, many businesses in Spain and Portugal had to revert to cash-only transactions during the huge power blackout, serving as a clear warning for what could happen elsewhere. To avoid a scenario like this, the Nordic and Baltic countries have been developing offline card payment systems.
Norway, Denmark, and Latvia have already launched their systems. They work like the ones used by airlines mid-flight: cards are swiped while offline and transactions are processed when the system is back online. This means you have to use a physical card and type your pin code for it to work.
Latvia has set a limit of €200 per card to allow only essential purchases, like medicine and fuel. Estonia is planning a similar solution, limiting offline payments to specific locations, like gas stations, pharmacies, and grocery shops.
In Northern Europe one of the main concerns is the risk of sabotage that could result in connection cuts, particularly following the many recent instances of damage to subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, the Estonian and Finnish central banks have warned of Europe’s heavy reliance on US companies like Visa and Mastercard for card payments – a reaction to the current US government’s unreliable course.
Offline payments are extremely crucial for resilience in Northern Europe, as they are highly digitalised countries where cashless payments dominate. These countries have some of the fewest ATMs per 100,000 people in Europe and in Finland only 10% of people use cash as their main payment method.
Sweden and Norway have the lowest amount of cash in circulation, as a percentage of GDP, in the world. In the meantime, cash circulation is still important in other parts of the EU. In Malta, Slovenia, and Italy the share of cash payments is over 60%.
 | Saara Saskia Sutt The only cash I currently have is a 20 cent coin in the pocket of my jacket. So I would definitely be in trouble if the internet went out. Living in Belgium, where financial institutions are pushing for a cashless society, it’s becoming harder to use cash, as ATMs are getting scarcer and more businesses are refusing cash. Never mind Estonia, where I have family living in the countryside, like many other Estonians, tens of kilometres away from the closest ATM. So while offline payments could offset some of the risk, maybe it’s not a bad idea to keep some cash at hand, in a piggy bank or under a mattress – whatever is more your style. |
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