Consumer Blog

It’s hard to imagine a world without the internet, but during an outage, it can become a reality—at least for a few hours or days at a time. You’ll need to overcome a number of challenges  while you wait for the service providers to fix the problem, but at least you can be sure that your finances will still be accessible.

Communication

Without the Internet, you won’t be able to reach out to friends and family on Facebook or Instagram. But really, a break from social media might actually be a good thing. It’s the perfect way to reset your priorities—who is important enough to you that you’ll actually pick up a phone to call them? Have you been devoting too much mental energy to how many likes your received on your last photo? Is Facebook even worth it?

Knowledge

You’ve gotten pretty used to having the sum of all human knowledge in your back pocket, haven’t you? From settling movie arguments with IMDB to using Wikipedia to refresh your memory about the War of 1812, the internet is an invaluable resource for cold, hard facts. Without it, you’re going to have to head over to the encyclopedia (remember those?) at your local library (they miss you!) and look things up the old-fashioned way.

Entertainment

This is a big one. Without Netflix, Pandora, and fresh memes, what will you do for entertainment? Some of you probably have a collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays to keep you busy, but once they run out, it’s time to head outside, blink a little in the sunlight, and find something fun to do. Look for a new hobby, and you might just find it’s better than even the freshest of memes.

Finances

Even if the internet is down in your community, your money is still safe at your local credit union. You just won’t be able to access online banking, and it’s possible you’ll have trouble using ATMs.

Don’t worry—you can still deposit or cash paychecks, move money from checking to savings, pay off your loans, or access any other services you need from your credit union. You’ll just have to go to an actual branch and talk to a member service representative. While you’re there, you should also talk to them about paying your bills, because if you don’t have automatic bill pay set up, you might be in for some unexpected surprises when the power company doesn’t receive your transfer.

You won’t be able to pay with a credit card or debit card in places that don’t have internet availability, because they rely on various online processes. Checks will still work—they were around way before the internet, so you know they’re okay. But because you won’t be able to Google how to write a check, be sure to look it up now while you still can.

This post has been pretty lighthearted, but an internet outage can definitely be intimidating—especially when it comes to your finances. Don’t be afraid to give your credit union a call if you have any questions at all, and they’ll work with you to find a good solution.