January 27, 2012 Archives

Earlier this week, I went to run an errand during lunchtime and stopped at a small neighborhood gas station. I swiped my credit card, entered my ZIP code and waited. Eventually, I was told there was a network error. I wasn't the only one. All of the customers had to go up to a kiosk and deal with a cashier and a malfunctioning network. The line was growing and people were getting irritable or leaving.

I've always wondered what would happen if a real crisis caused all network connections to go down or electricity to fail, which would prevent credit card processing from working. I love paying for gas with my credit or debit cards so that I don't have to try to predict how much I need to spend ahead of time. But maybe I should consider carrying enough cash for a tank of gas.

For plenty of great personal finance tips and advice, read on for my list of my 10 favorite blog posts from the past week.