Acute disruption in card payments longer than feared - nationwide terminals are failing in large numbers
Created: 05/26/2022, 04:45 am
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
On Tuesday, there were disruptions to card payments in supermarkets, petrol stations and retailers, which lasted until Wednesday.
Certain payment terminals are down due to a software bug.
Update from May 25, 9 p.m.:
In the meantime, the payment service provider TeleCash has also commented on the nationwide problems with payment terminals.
“Currently, some Verifone H5000 card payment terminals are not working.
The manufacturer Verifone is already working flat out on a solution," said the service provider when asked by
Merkur.de
.
In addition, it was emphasized that one was in contact with TeleCash customers.
The provider called on them not to "switch off their device, as this could mean that the terminal cannot be put back into operation." In response to Merkur.de's request, the service provider TeleCash wrote: "We will inform our customers as soon as we have more information.”
Card payment disruption: Reports from all over Germany
First report from May 25th:
Munich – There have been repeated problems with card payments throughout Germany since Tuesday.
In some cases, customers can no longer pay with their EC card or credit card in petrol stations, supermarkets and other retailers.
Reports from all over Germany accumulated
on the information
portal alle disturbances.de .
Card payment is therefore currently not an option in some retail stores.
"Due to a Germany-wide disruption in the entire trade, card payment is unfortunately not possible in some Aldi Nord branches at the moment," said the discounter.
The drugstore chain Rossmann and Edeka made a similar statement.
According to their own statement, Aldi Süd and the Rewe Group, i.e. the markets of Rewe, Penny and Toom Baumarkt, are not affected.
The German Retail Association (HDE) emphasized that the companies depend on the smooth running of the payment processes.
"Temporary and system-related failures are now rare and usually only affect a few systems," it said.
Malfunction with card payment: Apparently a specific card reader was affected
In the meantime, some affected providers have commented on the disruption.
The software provider Huth, which offers checkout systems for gas stations, wrote on its website, for example, that parts of a specific payment transaction were currently affected by a network disruption.
The manufacturer emphasized that this was not a fault in the Huth system, but in network operation: “The terminals cannot connect to the host.
Work is already underway to fix the problem."
"Like other network operators, we are currently experiencing significant nationwide restrictions in the processing of transactions with H5000 card payment terminals from the manufacturer Verifone," said the payment service provider Payone on Wednesday in Frankfurt.
According to the first findings, the cause is a malfunction within certain versions of the software provided by the US manufacturer.
Card payment disruption: Affected terminals fail for all payment types
The Federal Association of German Banks, representing the German banking industry, made it clear that the terminals in question are completely unavailable for all payment types, but that the corresponding type only accounts for a small proportion of all devices used in Germany.
"Network operators and technical service providers are working intensively on troubleshooting," it said.
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The financial service provider Concardis also confirmed the problem with the terminal type.
However, a company spokesman made it clear that affected dealers should not restart the devices themselves.
The devices should also remain connected to the power supply and network.
This is the only way the manufacturer can solve the problem.
Payone and Concardis also stated that they were in contact with Verifone and were working on solving the problem.
(lma/dpa)