Image caption A Sainsbury's store in Vauxhall, London, is not taking card payments

Visa says its service is "close to normal" again following a system failure which left customers across Europe unable to make some purchases.

The company apologised and said it had no reason to believe the hardware failure was down to "any unauthorised access or malicious event".

Its statement came five hours after it had initially acknowledged the problem.

Shoppers had reported being stuck in queues as Visa transactions were unable to be processed.

Payment processing through Visa's systems accounts for £1 in £3 of all UK spending, the company said.

Jay Curtis, from Swansea, had two cards declined in B&Q when he tried to pay for £240 worth of goods.

"My card just wouldn't go through," the 32-year-old told the BBC.

"I didn't have cash on me so I had to drive all the way home."

Labour MP Angela Rayner seems to be among those affected, tweeting that she had to leave her local petrol station without paying.

Elle Gibbs-Murray, from Bridgend, said she was stuck in traffic on the Severn Bridge for 45 minutes as drivers were unable to pay the toll by card.

Image caption Adam is one of many unable to use their Visa payment card

Adam, from Manchester, is a on a canal boat holiday with his girlfriend, Rach, and he was unable to use his card.

The 26-year-old said: "We have spent all day boating to moor up at a riverside pub in Kidlington for a birthday meal only to find the visa payments are not working. Having only £20 between us we have had to opt for a birthday drink instead.

"[There is] no cash point for miles around and no car as we are on the canal boat."

In Berlin's Alexanderplatz, customers at Primark complained of having to queue for 20 minutes to pay and staff there could not explain the reasons why transactions were failing.

Image copyright Deborah Elder Image caption Deborah says she was embarrassed she couldn't pay for her meal

Deborah Elder, from Glasgow, was unable to pay her restaurant bill while she was waiting at Frankfurt airport to fly back to Toulouse.

She said: "I was so embarrassed. I gave the waiter the 14 euros I had left.

"I'm worried I won't be able to get home when I land in Toulouse as I have no cash for a taxi."

Supermarket Tesco said chip and pin payments were not affected, but contactless payments were.

Sainsbury's also said it had experienced problems.

Consumer advocacy group Which? advised people to keep evidence of extra expenses incurred in order to claim them back in the future.

"Visa and the banks need to ensure no-one is left out of pocket due to this outage," said Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services.

A Visa spokesman said the system failure had "impacted customers across Europe" and the company apologised for falling "well short" of its reliability goal.</s>Credit-card networks talk of hopes for a cash-free society, but a Visa Inc. outage in Europe Friday showed that vision wasn’t quite ready for prime time.

Visa V, +0.10% was experiencing a service disruption in parts of Europe on Friday as merchants and consumers tweeted about an inability to use or accept Visa-branded cards, with some businesses posting signs that advised customers to either use cash or cards offered by Mastercard Inc. MA, +2.76% or American Express Co. AXP, -0.05%

“Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption,” the company told MarketWatch in a statement. “This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed. We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

A Visa spokesperson declined to provide more information about specific areas in Europe that were and weren’t affected by the outage.

Visa and Visa Europe remained separate entities when Visa proper went public in 2008, but Visa acquired its European counterpart in 2016. The Visa Europe integration is part of the bull case for Visa’s stock, as some analysts see opportunity ahead as the combined company restructures arrangements and makes technological upgrades in Europe.

Shares of Visa were up as much as 1.4% earlier in the day but are now trading down 0.1% in Friday afternoon trading, while Mastercard shares are up 2.6%. Visa’s stock has gained over 14% year-to-date, compared with a 2% gain for the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.08% .</s>Customers across the UK and Europe have been unable to pay for some of their purchases with Visa cards because of a network failure.

Shoppers reported being stuck in queues in supermarkets and petrol stations as Visa transactions could not be processed.

Banks have advised customers that they can still withdraw cash from ATMs.

Visa says it is working to resolve the issue. Mastercard and American Express said they were not affected.

Payment processing through Visa's systems accounts for £1 in £3 of all UK spending, the company said.

Paymentsense, which runs card services for small businesses, said some transactions were now starting to go through but there was a backlog.

Responding to complaints on social media, HSBC said there were issues with processing Visa payments, which were intermittent, but were "slowly recovering".

Jay Curtis, from Swansea, had two cards declined in B&Q when he tried to pay for £240 worth of goods.

"My card just wouldn't go through," the 32-year-old told the BBC.

"I didn't have cash on me so I had to drive all the way home."

Labour MP Angela Rayner seems to be among those affected, tweeting that she had to leave her local petrol station without paying.

Elle Gibbs-Murray, from Bridgend, said she was stuck in traffic on the Severn Bridge for 45 minutes as drivers were unable to pay the toll by card.

Adam, from Manchester, is a on a canal boat holiday with his girlfriend, Rach, and he is unable to use his card.

The 26-year-old said: "We have spent all day boating to moor up at a riverside pub in Kidlington for a birthday meal only to find the visa payments are not working. Having only £20 between us we have had to opt for a birthday drink instead.

"[There is] no cash point for miles around and no car as we are on the canal boat."

In Berlin's Alexanderplatz, customers at Primark complained of having to queue for 20 minutes to pay and staff there could not explain the reasons why transactions were failing.

Deborah Elder, from Glasgow, was unable to pay her restaurant bill while she was waiting at Frankfurt airport to fly back to Toulouse.

She said: "I was so embarrassed. I gave the waiter the 14 euros I had left.

"I'm worried I won't be able to get home when I land in Toulouse as I have no cash for a taxi."

Supermarket Tesco said chip and pin payments were not affected, but contactless payments were.

Sainsbury's also said it was experiencing problems.

Banks, including the Bank of Ireland, have said cash withdrawals at ATMs can still be made.

Consumer advocacy group Which? advised people to keep evidence of extra expenses incurred in order to claim them back in the future.

"Visa and the banks need to ensure no-one is left out of pocket due to this outage," said Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services.

The Bank of England, which oversees electronic payment providers such as Visa, said it was "aware of the issue" and was "working with the firm to resolve the situation".

Transport for London said it expected customers to still be able to use their contactless payment cards to pay for travel on its buses, trains and Tubes.

However, Paymentsense, which runs card services for small businesses, said transactions were now starting to go through but there was a backlog.

Are you a Visa customer? Have your card payments been affected? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
• Or upload your pictures/video here
• Send an SMS or MMS to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (international)
• Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy</s>Visa's payment network crashed across the UK and Europe on Friday, sparking chaos as customers' transactions were failed or being denied, according to a British newspaper.



The company confirmed that it was suffering an outage and investigating the cause, The Guardian reported. The scale of the outage remains unclear.

Visa customers across Europe took to Twitter saying that their payments were not being accepted at shops and petrol stations.

In a statement, Visa said: "Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption. This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.

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

Mastercard said its payment network was functioning normally. "We are seeing nothing abnormal on our network right now," a spokesman said.

Retailers also confirmed that payments were failing across the UK.

Marks & Spencer said: "We are unable to accept Visa card payments currently. No retailers are able to accept Visa cards."

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: "We are aware that Visa are currently experiencing problems. We are doing our best to help our customers and apologise for any inconvenience."

However, the situation left some customers abandoning their shopping and walking out of stores.</s>What has gone wrong?

Visa users are experiencing widespread problems with card payments. The problems appear to mainly be with chip and pin transactions. ATM transactions are not affected, so you can still take cash out. Mastercard and American Express are not affected.

Difficulties with payment do not indicate that you have been robbed or your card has been hacked.

The problems appear to have begun shortly after 2.30pm on Friday.

What is causing the problem?

Visa says it is investigating and will update people as soon as possible. An Asda spokesman suggested the problem was with the authorisation that is supposed to be sent to a chip and pin machine when you make a transaction. “When you try and pay something, it sends a message to Visa and then Visa have to send a message back to the chip and pin machine to say this is OK and then the banks are in between at some point. The message that is coming back to the chip and pin, that is where the fault is,” he said.

Where are people being affected?

Across the UK and Europe – although the problems do not appear to be consistent. Many companies in the UK have reported problems, including Sainsbury’s, rail operator GWR and pub chain Wetherspoons.



How long will the problem last?

Visa said it was working to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible” but did not say how long that would take. Shortly before 6pm on Friday HSBC’s UK Twitter account said “there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering”.

What effect is the payment failure having?

Many Visa users are complaining of difficulties as a result of the outage, reporting they have been stranded while travelling, are unable to pay for groceries, or are facing large queues at cash machines. But there were no early reports of panic, or evidence that the wider card payment system was under threat.</s>LONDON – Visa users in several European countries reported being unable to make payments with their credit and debit cards on Friday, and the company said it was experiencing a “service disruption.”

The credit card firm said the incident was “preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.”

READ MORE: Chase Canada getting rid of Amazon.ca, Marriott Visa cards: What you need to know

“We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation,” Visa said in a statement.

Consumers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries reported having card payments declined.

The bank HSBC said the “industry-wide issue” was affecting Visa payments, though ATM machines were still working.

It later said on Twitter that “there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering.”

Payment processing company Paymentsense said late Friday afternoon that transactions were starting to go through after a period of disruption but “there is still some intermittency” because of a backlog.

WATCH: Lost your Visa card? Some banks hold you fully liable</s>Card payments are being declined as Visa cards crash across Europe.

Visa has confirmed there is an ongoing technical issue with their cards which is stopping some transactions from going ahead.

Customers from nearly every UK bank have reported that they cannot pay for things with their debit or credit card.

Instead, shoppers have had to queue at cash machines in order to make payments.

The card payments network, Visa, processes transactions for a number of banks as well millions of small and large businesses.

The company said it is working towards resolving the problem.

Visa users have taken to social media to complain, and it is understood the Bank of England is aware of the issue and is in touch with Visa.

A Visa spokesman said: “Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption.

“This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.

“We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

HSBC’s UK Twitter account replied to a customer query on Twitter: “We believe there may have recently been issues with Visa’s payments processing.

“From what we understand there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering.”

Natwest told their customers: “We are aware that some customers are experiencing issues with Visa Card Payments.

“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.”</s>Visa has said that a "service disruption" had hit its payment system, leaving some businesses unable to process purchases by its cardholders.

The extent and cause of the hours-long outage that began Friday afternoon was unclear, but customers across the continent filled social media with posts in which they vented frustration.

British lawmaker Angela Rayner tweeted that she left a petrol station without paying.

"First time I've ever left without paying for my fuel #visa fail," she wrote, adding: "Good job my local garage knows me."

Many businesses in Britain posted handmade "cash only" signs on their storefronts, while grocery shoppers reported long queues and chaos at supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, Tesco and Aldi.

"We are currently experiencing a service disruption which is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed," the US-based card giant said in a statement.

"We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation. We will keep you updated."

Later Friday, Visa apologised for the outage and said it was "currently operating at close to normal levels."

"The issue was the result of a hardware failure," it said in a statement.

"We have no reason to believe this was associated with any unauthorised access or malicious event."

Barclays and the Bank of Ireland told customers that they were aware of the situation and encouraged people to make withdrawals at cash machines.

Santander UK said it was receiving an "extremely high volume of calls" to its customer service centre, while British lender HSBC said Visa was "working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible."

Visa rivals American Express and Mastercard were not affected.</s>“Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption,” Amanda Pires, a spokesperson for the company, said in an emailed statement. “This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed. We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

Visa Inc. said it’s experiencing an issue that’s preventing some transactions in Europe.

Some European banks and businesses, including HSBC Holdings Plc and Bank of Ireland, acknowledged customer issues with payments through Visa on social media.

Visa handles more than $10 trillion (U.S.) in payments every year. The company completed its $20 billion purchase of Visa Europe in 2016 after the two firms spent eight years as separate entities.</s>Visa has said it is experiencing problems with its card processing systems is preventing payments being made by card in many stores across the UK.

A spokesperson from Visa said: “Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption.

“This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.

“We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

Large queues have been sen forming outside Asda in Queensferry as people draw cash from ATM’s.

Dan has been in touch to say: “There is chaos at Asda Queensferry at the moment due to a problem which has seen the store stop taking card payments.

There’s women leaving trollies full of frozen food at the tills and storming out on their dressing gowns”

Tweets from around the UK.
Visa card payments are disrupted throughout Europe due to a network failure. The disruption results in large queues at supermarkets and petrol stations. Mastercard and American Express say they were not affected.