I have had cards expire and the new cards sent to an outdated address, and when that was discovered, the bank blocked all cards since they could have fallen into the wrong hands. I happened to be traveling at that time. I’ve had cards be blocked due to random fluctuations in the usage pattern. Calling usually helps a to resolve this, though it usually takes time. I’ve had an ATM eat my card and not return it. I have entered the wrong pin once too many. I’ve had my bank replay all transactions from at the beginning of the month twice, debiting the rent and all payments twice, and overdrawing my account, blocking my cards. Shit happens. Cash was always an option to solve this.

> > A few month ago, card terminals of a widely used type failed hard in Germany, only cash payment was possible.

> This exactly is part of my point.

I don’t understand how this is part of your point. It was a bug that required exchanging the terminals - either some kind of hardware or a borked software update that left the terminals unable to function. Shit happens, in hardware, too. It’s not like other countries are magically exempt from failures of their digital infrastructure.