US companies have been hit by the credit card payments disruption
- Customers at McDonald’s, Ikea, Popeyes, and others say they cannot pay with their credit cards.
- Payment processor Fiserv said its services were cut off on Friday.
- Earlier in the day, Chick-fil-A suffered a blackout and served free meals.
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Corporations across the United States only accept cash because their credit card payment systems are disabled.
Fiserv, one of the leading payment providers in the US, told Insider, “A widespread internet outage has affected many companies today.” “Some of Fiserv’s services that depend on connecting to the Internet have been cut. Most of them have been restored and we are totally focused on restoring the rest,” Ann Kaif, a spokeswoman for the company, added in an email. Fiserv refused to name its internet service provider.
Customers on Twitter have reported outages at IKEAAnd the Forever 21And McDonald’s and Popeyes, as well as at local places like the car wash, New Jersey Automobile Commission. Representatives of the companies were not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Chick-fil-A’s propulsion machines were not operational early in the day, which led to this Distribute free meals. Miami International Airport Establish a statement Notify customers of district outages using credit card machines inside taxis.
Customers called Fiserv on Twitter. The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy tweeted: “Our credit card payment processing system is currently out of service.” “The disconnection 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 A deal worth $ 22 billion. The acquisition reversed the consolidation trend in the payment processing industry as the world shifted from cash to credit cards.
Other major payment providers, Worldpay and Global Payments, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment about the service outage.
Down detector, Which tracks outages, has reported an increase in problems for people using 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, that is causing internet issues that may affect a small number of cardholders today,” a Visa spokesperson told Insider. Visa regulations were not affected.
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