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| Visa users took to social media to complain of problems processing transactions in Europe June 1, 2018 (AFP Photo/ALAIN JOCARD) |
London
(AFP) - Payment systems giant Visa was struggling to process transactions in
Europe on Friday and said it was rapidly trying to fix the issue.
The
blockage has left some customers stuck at the tills in stores across the
continent and queueing at cash machines.
"We
are currently experiencing a service disruption which is preventing some Visa
transactions in Europe from being processed," a Visa spokesman told AFP.
"We
are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the
situation."
The
spokesman could not say how many Visa users across Europe had been affected.
Visa users
took to social media to complain and banks tried to explain the situation their
customers.
HSBC bank's
UK Twitter account said: "From what we understand there are still
intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering."
Paymentsense,
which provides card machines, online payment gateways and virtual terminals to
some 60,000 independent businesses in Britain and Ireland, advised users to try
paying via contactless transactions.
"We
have been informed that Visa has corrected the outage and transactions are now
starting to go through. There is still some intermittency however, we believe
this is due to a backlog of transactions," it said.
"We
now understand that contactless transactions have a better chance of going
through."
It is
understood the Bank of England is aware of the issue and is in touch with Visa.
The Royal
Bank of Scotland's Twitter help account said cash machine withdrawals were
unaffected.
"This
is an industry wide issue which is being investigated as a matter of urgency
and we apologise for any inconvenience. ATM and MasterCard transactions are not
impacted," it said.
Queues in
shops
In a
Primark store on Berlin's Alexanderplatz, frustrated customers were queueing
for 20 minutes to pay. Staff did not know why transactions were not going
through.
However, in
the neighbouring store, transactions were being processed without any problems.
Sandra Foy,
who owns a bookshop in Manchester, northwest England, told Sky News television:
"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 BBC
posted a picture of a London supermarket worker standing outside holding a sign
reading: "cash only".
It cited
Elle Gibbs-Murray, from Bridgend in south Wales, as saying she was stuck in
traffic on the Severn Bridge between England and Wales for 45 minutes as
drivers were unable to pay the toll by card.
Alex Neill,
Which? consumer magazine's 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."
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