Visa network crash hits Europe

[Miri]

https://news.sky.com/story/visa-card-problems-hit-uk-customers-and-businesses-11392087


I thought this was interesting. Wonder what will happen if we become a fully
cashless society. This is reported from the UK perspective but it’s Europe wide.


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Customers are being left stranded at the tills due to a "service disruption" impacting Visa cards.

Some businesses are currently unable to process payments made using Visa cards, impacting
potentially millions of customers.


"Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption. This incident is preventing some Visa
transactions in Europe from being processed," a Visa spokesperson told Sky News.

"We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation," they added.

£1 in every £3 spent in the UK is on a Visa card.

Around two hours after the fault came to light, some payments were reported to
be working "intermittently".


The extent and cause of the problem has not yet been clarified by Visa, nor have they
stated whether retailers will be compensated for lost earnings.

Retailers including Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's have confirmed they have been
affected, with Sainsbury's commenting: "We are aware that Visa are currently
experiencing problems. We are doing our best to help our customers and apologise
for any inconvenience."

The Visa disruption is not exhaustive, with Transport For London not reporting any problems
from Visa contactless users on their services.


Some retailers are resorting to putting up notices to warn customers that they are unable
to take card payments.

Business owners are angry that they are losing sales as a result.

Sandra Foy, who owns a bookshop in Manchester, told Sky News: "I run a small business
and the loss of any business is a big deal for us. Not knowing when this is going to be
sorted out is incredibly frustrating."

The payments were not working by the time she had to close her shop and Ms Foy
fears the impact on her business if the issues run into tomorrow.

"It wasn't working when I left work. It will impact badly if it is still down tomorrow, Saturday
being our busiest day."

 

[zeroturbulence]

I always carry some cash because I don't like to use my credit cards, but it would be a problem if I was getting gas at Costco because they only take the costco visa card... and their gas is always the cheapest in town... usually by at least 10 cents a gallon!

 

[AngelFrog]

Hackers having fun?
Lord knows I'd love to have the acumen that a hacker has. Think of the job opportunities! Instead such people use their gifts for making trouble in the world.
Imagine the outcome if, the electrical grid was taken down by a hacker. Think of how much we use electricity and how so much of our daily living depends on it.
Sick? Need your prescription? Sorry. The computers aren't working so as to find it for you.

But that's nothing. Officials in the top national security offices in America and around the globe fear something worse.

Hackers taking out our satellite systems.
As one such person said, it would bust us back to the stone age.

 

[tanakh]

I wasn't aware of any problem until I read about it this morning. I didn't use my card yesterday but I did today without any problem

 

[Miri]

I wasn't aware of any problem until I read about it this morning. I didn't use my card yesterday but I did today without any problem

Yes I think they fixed it several hours later.

It got me thinking though how things will crumble it they move
to a cashless society. One slight blip and everything will grind to a halt.

 

[trofimus]

I use my card just once a month to withdraw my money from ATM and for the rest of the month I use the cash, so I am still quite old-fashioned.

 

[Miri]

I use a mixture too.

 

[AngelFrog]

Have any of you checked the Experian dark web report, it's free, to see if that hacking incident reported last year impacted you personally?
https://www.experian.com/consumer-products/free-dark-web-email-scan.html

We did. WOW! That's why we take precautions on-line now.
And one thing we learned too. Using PayPal does not keep your personal info. private. PayPal delivers a receipt to your merchant that shows all of your personal information. Name, address, phone, bank used through the PayPal system to pay for their product, and the last four of your bank account. Even if you used a debit or credit card, PP shows that financial institution info backing that card.