Also anyone that's lived through a hurricane or a blackout tell you cash is king. Having a few days worth stashed is a good addition to any preparedness kit.
Americans have an especially tough time finding a bank to open an account due to FBAR and FACTA, treaties signed to combat money laundering and such.
The result is that many bank branches choose to not offer accounts due to the added paperwork.
No bank account. No bankid. Often fewer services available to you.
Note: this is a common criticism for foreign nationals starting up a life in Sweden.
This can't happen if you can take cash out (and to a lesser degree if you can buy gold/silver).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11895084/How-Sw...
I have used in car-rental recently. Not sure if my grocery store would accept this sort of payment though :-/
the unbanked are further isolated and prevented from engaging in commerce.
Older generations are left behind. Just trying to switch bankid login from old phone to new phone is a PITA, and I'm tech savvy.
Lack of anonymous transactions means that my banks know about my vices such as gambling, porn, or strippers.
Cascading failures - payment network crashes means no one can authorize traction means long lines at registers. Everywhere.
Just lending money to someone requires a smartphones and apps (swish in Sweden) and bankid (see above)
Battery dead on phone? Sorry, I can't loan you 500kr. (You can still receive on dead battery).
Now, I will be the first to admit that when all the boxes are checked it works pretty well. Swish is amazing.
However, what concerns me is the blind faith people have in this huge tech stack. There is so much that goes into facilitating the purchase of a candy bar from a vending machine. It is an all or nothing scenario. Either it works 100% or you can't use the chip in your card in the terminal to connect to the network to the bank to verify funds available to authorize purchase of said candy bar.
Thankfully there is still cash which in my opinion really greases the wheels of everyday commerce.