Be sure to take more than one type of credit card. There were problems yesterday? Friday? with Visa and this morning I cannot get a Visa transaction approved to buy tickets to the York Minister, which is only allowing entry with tickets prepurchased online.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14067 posts
Interesting that you posted. Yesterday (Saturday) I overheard a server in a small restaurant in Bath say Visa was not working but thought it was their connection or something. Will check with our hotel tomorrow to make sure it’s all ok before checkout on Tuesday AM.
Thanks.
Posted by
Southeastern USA
996 posts
I saw this article on the BBC website which mentions Visa cards...
Posted by
2442 posts
Looks like the problem has now been fixed.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14067 posts
Yes, just spoke to the hotel reception and she indicates she’s taken several Visa charges today with no issue BUT says she renewed her cell phone contract yesterday and the charge came thru twice!
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
As someone who worked retail and has had to deal with systems going down and both debit/credit cards not working (usually at VERY busy times), this is why I like to have some cash on me!
Posted by
OP
Charleston & Birmingham
4380 posts
Update: I did have cash but the problem was ordering tickets online where cash is no help! Surprisingly, my husband was able to use a Visa on a different bank-it was our two Chase cards that didn't work online, but about an hour later, I was able to use the same card that was turned down. And contrary to their website, York Minster was selling tickets at the door.
Posted by
Washington DC Region, USA
7049 posts
From the Wall Street Journal:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/visa-experiences-service-disruption-in-parts-of-europe-1527872191
"Consumers in parts of the U.K. and Europe couldn’t use Visa Inc. cards for much of Friday after a system failure prevented transactions from being processed, the company said. The problem was resolved later in the day."
There was apparently some hardware failure. Don't want folks to get the idea to worry about using their credit cards in the future - this seemed like a random mishap, that's all.
Posted by
Houston
3521 posts
It was an unfortunate hardware issue which prevented transactions from being processed as reported by Visa. It was only a small window of time, but of course seemed to be worse at the point in time where most people were trying to use their card.
Good reason to have credit and/or debit cards from multiple banks with Visa AND MasterCard options. The next time this might hit MasterCard.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4054 posts
It is good policy to have several different branded credit cards, not just for malfunction but in case of loss. Ditto ATM cards. And don't carry them all in the same wallet.