When EFTPOS goes down: why every household needs a cash float

Most of us have stopped carrying cash. For everyday life that is fine. In an emergency it can leave you unable to buy fuel, food or water at the exact moment you need them.

It has already happened, more than once

On 8 November 2023, the Optus network went down for around 12 hours, affecting about 10 million people. Phones stopped working, and so did EFTPOS terminals in many shops, cafes and petrol stations that relied on that network. People stood at counters with full bank accounts and no way to pay.

It is not only one provider. In December 2025 a Westpac EFTPOS outage hit during the Christmas peak and lasted around five hours. On 1 January 2025, digital wallet payments failed across several banks at once.

And in a real disaster it is worse. After the 2016 South Australian statewide blackout, the Australian Energy Market Operator found that mobile phone towers had only between two and eight hours of backup power. When the towers go quiet, card payments go with them.

What a cash float looks like

You do not need a lot. The goal is enough to cover a few days of essentials if cards stop working:

• Fuel for at least one full tank.
• Food and water for your household for a few days.
• Small notes and coins. A shop with no power may not be able to give change for a $100 note.

For many households, a few hundred dollars in small notes is plenty. Keep it somewhere you can reach quickly, like with your emergency documents or in your grab bag, and do not spend it on takeaway.

Make it part of your plan

A cash float works best alongside the rest of your plan: a full tank before a forecast storm, a printed list of phone numbers in case your phone is flat or the network is down, and a battery or wind-up radio for warnings when the internet is not available.

Our free 72-Hour Checklist scores how ready your household is, cash float included, and shows you what to add next.

It is one of the cheapest preparations you can make, and one of the ones people most often wish they had.