Since Tuesday morning there has been a nationwide disruption in the processing of card payments. A few supermarkets, discounters and retailers throughout Germany are affected. The problem could not be solved so far. Even on Wednesday, customers could not pay with bank cards in some shops. FOCUS Online says what you have to pay attention to now.
As several retailers report on social networks, customers in many places cannot currently pay with EC or bank cards. Credit cards are also affected. According to information from FOCUS Online, branches of Netto Marken-Discount, Edeka and individual Rewe branches are particularly affected. But there are also isolated problems with card payments at Aldi Süd, Aldi Nord, Rossmann and dm.
The problem first appeared on Tuesday morning. The retail chain Konsum from Dresden reported on Facebook “Attention, an important note for you! Due to a Germany-wide disruption, card payment is currently not possible in our stores.”
It is unclear how long the disruption will last. Apparently only certain card readers are affected, which can read the payment data but cannot forward it. “The terminals cannot connect to the host. Work is already underway to rectify the problem,” explains the software provider Huth, who equips gas stations with such devices.
FOCUS Online advises: If you don’t have any cash with you and want to shop, clarify in advance at the checkout whether card payments are possible or not. You save yourself long queues and trouble. Be sure to pay attention to notices at the entrance, to announcements and information signs in the supermarket. Gas stations attach stickers and signs directly to the pumps in the event of device failures.
If card payment is not possible and you do not have cash with you, you must leave the purchases where they are. At the petrol stations, ID cards, driver’s licenses and health insurance cards are retained as a deposit. In some cases, even the police get involved.
The “Alle disturbances.de” page also recorded an increased number of fault reports from the card provider Visa and from various banks on Tuesday. These come from numerous places in Germany.
The messages are mainly given when paying, users seem to be able to withdraw money from machines. This means that affected customers would at least not be completely cut off from access to money.
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