Exchanging goods, used to happen frequently between our relatives and neighbours to make ends meet. 
Don’t they have credit and debit cards in the UK? The banks here supply them for free.
“They’re” surreptitiously manipulating us into cashlessness.
That way they won’t have to make any coins or print notes. Also “they” can track us and watch what we’re doing with money.
It’s all a fiendish plot. 
Nah don’t need them if you have a mobile phone.
Yes what ever next.
There are Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS) based on exchanging goods or services. I was aware of this where I used to live and on searching the internet found there are various places still using this idea.
The link below is for one such scheme in Dorset, there are many others, this one has probably the best website to show how LETS works.
“If you haven’t come across LETS before, a Local Exchange and Trading System is a modern form of bartering which puts you in a position to trade skills, goods and services with other local people.”
http://www.swdorsetlets.org.uk
At the moment none of us knows what the future will bring with regard to ‘the disappearing high street’ and COVID-19, maybe this is part of how things might be? 
Bad comparison Bruce…
Modern technology based on the internet is a billion times more complex than the simple motor car. There was a time when many people could understand the workings of their vehicles, and as such, would service and maintain them.
Even though the modern motor car is now way beyond the scope of the average driver to tinker about with, it’s still not rocket science and mainly a collection of moving parts. Providing the oil and other propellants are forthcoming, I can’t see it disappearing from our roads anytime soon. Unless it becomes economically or politically impossible to continue. (ever increasing costs, and the ‘Save the Planet’ knobs)…
The internet however is like an ever increasing tower of bricks that becomes more unstable as the height increases. It is dependent on so many things, as as history has shown us, if something can happen, it will! And when a vehicle breaks down, only the driver suffers, but when the internet breaks down…We All Suffer, as Cinders correctly points out…
I love technology Vlad, but it doesn’t stop me from seeing where it’s going to end up…Luddite? not at all, but I resist the temptation to get too comfortable and put my trust totally into all that’s new and state-of-the-art…Having a ‘Plan B’ sounds like good advice to me…
A brilliant simple idea, to bring people together and help each other out, something we need more than ever.
I think Bruce’s comparison is equally valid.
How so Besoeker?
You obviously don’t get out much. When a vehicle breaks down it can disrupt traffic, causes tailbacks and blocked roads for kilometres all around, leading to grid lock and can affects thousands.
The Internet was designed to be war/bomb/civil upheaval proof, that was its original reason for being during the cold war when the US in particular was concerned that the USSR could damage the west’s communications systems. Any disruption can be isolated because it is a vast network of alternate routes unlike the road system.
Foxy, it don’t matter how big the internet gets, its just data, just more of it and faster, nowt new there.:-)
Which is just as well as there are no longer going to be as many in Post Offices, see link below.
Business premises where a cash machine would be expected to be found is soon no longer going to be the case it would seem.
[I]"The Post Office is to cut a third of its cash machines in the next 18 months with 600 ATMs to be shut by March 2022.
The move has raised concerns that rural and deprived communities face being cut off from access to cash."[/I]
Can see problems for some without cash, those with a limited budget already struggling, pushing people into unaffordable long-term debt.
The key to secure finances is knowing what you’ve got and how you spend it. Old fashioned thinking maybe, but there you go.
Something I read many moons ago…
‘Control the coinage, control the courts, let the rabble have the rest’
17th Century
That’s always worked for me Cinders…
I even run an account on my computer that is a mirror of my bank account. As with all accounting, just make sure that there isn’t more going out than coming in…
The trouble with debit/credit cards is the fact that they still keep working when there’s now’t left…
I still use my M$ Money program out of habit but I also have a real time bank accounting on my phone which is updated within seconds of the transaction.
Debit cards do not work when there is nothing left in the account, that is the whole point of them, they can only take what is in your account. Once the account has insufficient money then the payment is declined.
Never been that destitute yet Bruce, thanks to my duplicate account. I try not to have too many Direct Debits either, but some companies insist…
Seems like you are the one that doesnt get out much Brucy??
When did you last see grid locked traffic caused by a broken down
vehicle in ossie??
And if you think internet banking is more secure than bank vaults
ou need to get your head read!
I await your deluge of data to prove me wrong !!
Donkeyman!
Once there is no cash, the banks have complete control of what
used to be “your money” !!
They allready control the credit side finance, even governments
have to borrow the money they need from the banks??
You are the ones that have to pay for this borrowing !!
All banks are privately owned,either individually or by consortiums
of allready rich individuals , and these are often linked intrnationally
which means that banking is in fact one very powerful entity that
makes its own rules and systems
You will no longer be able to keep an emergency stock of cash on
hand as that cash is going to be scrapped and you wont be able to
spend it?
I believe the banks aim is to get every person on the planet into
debt? They have almost completed this task allready and l can
see the day when children are issued with a credit card at birth
with a pre-determined credit rating to get them started and from
then on they become slaves of credit??
Why are they doing this?
Because the only way to make money multiply is to lend it to
someone else, who pays for the priviledge?this up to now has been
a voluntary arrangement, but soon it will be enforced by the system ?
Think about it ! we are almost there imo??
Donkeyman!