In an age where digital payments dominate, the importance of carrying cash cannot be overstated. Many residents who were out shopping, refilling their tanks or paying bills couldn’t do so because of a massive global cyber outage that affected various sectors.
Awais Toor, a resident of Al Nahda in Sharjah and an engineer working at a consultancy firm was surprised when he went shopping on Friday morning.
On the counter, he tapped his debit card after shopping, and the payment was declined. “I tapped the card thrice, but payment declined. I was furious [because I thought] my account was hacked and opened my banking app and learned that all was well,” said Toor.
When Ahmed requested the grocer to try once more with the card of another bank, it still did not work. “I had to go to the ATM and withdraw cash to pay to the grocer. Thankfully the ATM was working. On my way back from ATM, I read the news about the technical defect in the CrowdStrike software update,” said Toor.
“It was a frustrating experience that made me realise the importance of carrying some cash for emergencies,” added said Toor.
Nida Huq, a Pakistani national residing in Abu Hail faced a similar issue at a petrol station while she was dropping her son to the summer camp. “My son’s summer camp is in Al Mamzar. While I was dropping him I noticed low fuel and drove to the petrol station. Usually, I always fill the tank full which amounts to Dh210. The moment I saw the board reading only cash, I requested the attendant to stop filling and checked my bag if there was any cash,” said Huq.
“The reading on the machine was Dh88 but I had only Dh70 in cash. I requested the petrol bunk attend that I will be back soon with the remaining amount, and thankfully he agreed. I paid the remaining to him after an hour,” said Huq.
“In today’s digital world, traditional methods are often overlooked. This experience made me realise that sometimes we need to stick to our roots and not just follow the trend,” added Huq.
Mohammed AbuHamid, a marketing executive at Gift4me, a corporate gifting firm had an unexpected turn of events at a restaurant in Al Nahda. “My colleagues and I go to a particular restaurant for lunch after our Friday prayers. We normally use our debit and credit cards for any sort of payments,” said AbuHamid.
“After a nice meal, I found out the POS machines were not functioning. And some of my colleagues did not even get their wallets. All we had was Dh50 with us and the total bill was about Dh140 for 8 members,” he said. “The restaurant staff knew us and we had to leave without paying the bill initially. We returned in the evening to settle it. It was embarrassing and inconvenient,” said AbuHamid.