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Numbers in the supermarket (symbol photo): There are currently problems with certain terminals
Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa
According to payment service providers and banks, payment by giro or credit card in Germany has been partially disrupted since Tuesday evening.
"Like other network operators, we are currently experiencing significant nationwide restrictions on 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 provider.
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.
Meanwhile, on the Verifone website, the H5000 model is advertised as “the most-used terminal in Germany”.
At the same time, however, it is also said that the device will no longer be offered for sale as new.
Affected dealers should leave the device connected to the power supply
In 2018, Verifone announced that more than 350,000 H5000 terminals were in use across Germany and across industries.
With its integrated NFC reader, the device enables both contactless payment and payment processes in which a card is inserted.
The financial service provider Concardis has also confirmed that there is currently a problem with the H5000 terminal type.
A spokesman for the company 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 both stated that they were in contact with Verifone and were working on solving the problem.
mbo/dpa