If you have a card in your wallet that has a VISA logo on it you are likely unable to make payments right now.
The service is currently down across Europe. ATM cash withdrawals are reportedly still working. You are unable to use your card in stores or to complete online purchases.
I called in to a well known Dublin drinks retailer who did say they were having some major issues accepting payments but not all services were affected. If you’re interested, I bought a bottle of Jameson IPA Caskmates using KBC Google Pay. This operates on Mastercard and seemed to be unaffected.
I couldn’t help but notice that there were queues starting to gather at ATMs in the capital as I continued my walk home. At least if this is an economic crash, I have a bottle of whiskey to keep me going, right?
On a serious note, just remember: ATMs are working fine and you can still try your card. Apparently, contactless payments do have a better chance of being processed for some reason so try that. We are no closer to Armageddon than we were this morning.
Update: Visa has blamed a hardware issue for the outage and now says systems are back to near maximum efficiency.
More to follow as it happens…
