A significant payment disruption hit Mastercard users today, affecting customers in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Australia.
Reports on Down Detector surged shortly after 9 a.m. UK time, with users experiencing declined transactions and error messages.
More than 100 complaints surfaced as customers struggled to complete purchases. Frustrated users took to social media to share their experiences, with one noting they were unable to buy items on Amazon despite having sufficient funds. Another user cautioned others to carry cash when heading out, given the payment failures.
A Mastercard representative addressed the issue, stating, “A temporary issue earlier today led to some declined transactions. The problem has been resolved, and Mastercard’s systems are operating normally.”
The outage followed a separate incident involving Barclays, where over 1,000 customers encountered issues transferring funds on March 8. Although Barclays rectified the issue within hours, a previous outage in February left customers without access to their accounts for more than 48 hours.
This incident is part of a broader pattern of payment disruptions. In July last year, a third-party provider’s technical failure temporarily affected Visa and Mastercard users, preventing them from accessing their funds at certain UK merchants.
Digital transactions now account for about 70% of in-person card payments globally, according to Mastercard’s Americas President Linda Kirkpatrick.
“With the growing reliance on digital transactions, our commitment to investing in security and fraud prevention tools is more important than ever,” Kirkpatrick told Yahoo Finance.
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