Visa outage: payment chaos after card network crashes – live updates

Which? has warned that the widespread network failure could attract scammers, and advised people to be “extra wary” of calls or emails related to the outage.

Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services, said:

Clearly this issue will be a huge inconvenience to customers and it must be resolved urgently. Visa and the banks need to ensure no-one is left out of pocket due to this outage.

We strongly advise people to keep any evidence of extra expenses they’ve incurred in order to claim them back.”

Guardian Money’s Miles Brignall has just returned from Morrisons supermarket in Letchworth. It’s cash only signs up. Plenty of shoppers have abandoned their baskets. Others are queuing up outside the ATMs outside the building.

Everyone’s pretty good natured considering. He says he was able to pay using a MasterCard and had no problems. Amex was also being taken but no visa cards.

Readers have been getting in touch with their experiences.

Although the outage appears to have struck at around 2:30pm, one reader says she was unable to use her Visa debit at lunchtime.

Rebecca Rapport said:

My Visa debit was declined in M&S in the City at about 13:15 today. The sales assistant thought it was the card machine so I used Apple Pay. Sounds like this has been happening earlier than reported.

Rich Dunning, an administrator at the University of Liverpool who is currently working in the States with a colleague, had his card declined abroad.

We’re currently in the US for work and all our Visa work cards were declined, so it looks like the outage seems to be affecting cards being used outside Europe too. Luckily I had some dollars in cash from earlier and a colleague has a MasterCard so we’re not totally stuck!

Amid a lack of information at a the supermarket till, reader Fiona Hillhouse had to make various enquiries at Asda and her bank before being told about the problem.

My husband and I had nipped to Asda earlier to get some shopping. My husband used his card to pay and checkout assistant declared it was declined. They tried 3 times. So I ran out to the car to get my card which I’d used just before to pay the hygienist.

We have a joint account so I used my card - declined too. The none-to-helpful checkout assistant told us to take it up with the bank. How could both cards not be working? And how were we going to pay for our shopping? My husband used his credit card.

Got home. Phoned the bank, waited half an hour to speak to someone. Account was fine it must be Asda’s machines.

Phoned Asda. Was advised it was a problem with Visa. Could they not have told us that instead of making us feel mortified as if we didn’t have money in our bank account, in front of a queue of customers.

I’m just relieved someone hasn’t emptied our bank Account!

Guy Anker, deputy editor of consumer website MoneySavingExpert.com, criticised the network failure in an age when we “rely so heavily on technology” for basic purchases.

After TSB’s IT meltdown, this is yet another big banking or payment systems problem for people to have to deal with. It’s simply not good enough in this day and age when we rely so heavily on technology to conduct what are pretty basic things such as buying a drink or a meal.

If you’re going out or making a payment online over the weekend, have a look at what’s in your wallet and ensure if you’ve a MasterCard or Amex you take that out or use it. And until this is fixed cash is king if you’re spending out and about, so ensure you’ve enough to get by on in case your cards don’t work.

As this is about processing credit or debit card transactions it shouldn’t affect standing orders, direct debits or bank transfers.”

Peter Hahn, the professor of banking at the London Institute of Banking and Finance, said consumers should be prepared for the possibility of “cyber risks” at all times by having backup payment options.

He told Sky News:

In today’s world, with cyber risks, everyone really needs to always be carrying two means to make a payment.

That almost means you should have two bank accounts. Cyber risks can happen really anywhere. Visa - we tend to think of it as a bank, but for most of us what it means is that it’s a communications network.

We have a bank that we’re going to have a credit card from, stores have their banks, and Visa is really the connection between those banks. And it’s got lots of entry points that can be challenged so hopefully they’ve got the expertise to fix those systems quickly.

There have been no further updates from Visa since an initial statement sent more than two hours ago. Here is what we know so far.

Labour MP Angela Rayner appears to have been affected during a visit to her local garage: