Comment by GTP
While I see the issue with credit cards, why wouldn't cash work? I see the two following possible issues:
1. ATM machines may stop working.
2. Your local bank branch may have issues knowing how much money you have on your account, making it hard to manually give you cash.
Both can be great issues, but can be worked around with a bit of time to prepare. Do you see other issues?
Cash would work, but depending on who/where you ask, many people don't even have enough cash on them (or at home) to get them through a single day.
> but can be worked around with a bit of time to prepare
The prompt was "the Internet goes away tomorrow", and I highly doubt that we'd be able to resurrect branch-based "offline" banking in a single day.