Credit card payment system crash hits U.S. businesses



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  • Customers at McDonald’s, Ikea, Popeyes and others say they can’t pay with their credit cards.
  • Payment processor Fiserv said its services were halted on Friday.
  • Earlier today, Chick-fil-A had an outage and handed out free meals.
  • Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.

Businesses across the United States only accept cash because their credit card payment systems are down.

Fiserv, a leading payment provider in the United States, told Insider that “a widespread ISP outage has impacted several businesses today.” Ann Cave, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email that “Some Fiserv services that rely on internet connectivity have been discontinued. The majority have been restored and we are fully focused on restoring the rest. ” Fiserv declined to name his Internet service provider.

Customers on Twitter have reported outages to Ikea, Forever 21, McDonald’s and Popeyes, as well as places like a car wash and the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles. Company representatives were not immediately available for comment on Friday.

Chick-fil-A’s payment machines were not working earlier in the day, which led him to hand out free meals. Miami International Airport make a statement notify customers of a countywide outage with credit card machines inside taxis.

Customers called Fiserv on Twitter. “Our credit card payment processing system is currently down,” the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy tweeted. “The outage happened with First Data / Fiserv, which is one of the largest payment processing systems in the country.”

In 2019, Fiserv acquired another payments company known as First Data in a $ 22 billion deal. The acquisition reflected a consolidation trend in the payment processor industry as the world shifted from cash payments to credit cards.

The other major payment providers, Worldpay and Global Payments, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the outage.

Down Detector, which tracks outages, has reported an increase in problems for people with Visa or Mastercard credit cards.

Mastercard spokesperson Seth Eisen told Insider: “As far as Mastercard is concerned, we are operating normally today.”

“Visa is aware of a service disruption with a third-party provider, used by some merchants, which is causing internet issues that may have affected a small number of cardholders today,” a spokesperson told Insider . “Visa systems have not been affected.”



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