On Thursday, UK shoppers experienced a significant payments outage that hindered online and card transactions using Visa and Mastercard.
Major retailers, including Sainsbury’s, ASDA, and M&S, received numerous complaints from frustrated shoppers unable to purchase groceries, as reported by DownDetector. A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s explained to Sky News, “This was due to an issue with our third-party payment provider. We’re accepting all payments as usual and continue to monitor the situation. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Consumers began reporting payment issues in central London on Thursday morning at around 8:00 AM, although the number of complaints diminished as the day progressed. A Visa spokesperson stated, “We are aware that a merchant payment provider reported issues this morning that impacted some cardholders. It has been reported that this issue is now resolved. Visa’s systems continue to operate normally.”
Mastercard also acknowledged the situation, saying, “We are aware of some payment transaction issues at select merchants in the UK and are working with our partners to gather more information. There is no current indication that these issues are related to our network.”
The outage has been linked to a service disruption at Worldline. A Mastercard spokesperson confirmed, “We can affirm that the Mastercard network has been operating normally and that yesterday’s issues were not related to our systems.”
Andrew Martin, CEO and Founder of SMEB, commented on the risks associated with over-reliance on cashless payments: “Today’s payment outages highlight the ongoing importance of cash and why transitioning to a cashless society is concerning. Many businesses in the UK are declaring themselves ‘cashless’ venues, and it raises questions about how they manage during technical glitches like this and the frustration they cause for their customers.”