Thousands Have Credit Cards Refused By Visa Mess-Up
Thousands of people found their credit cards were refused on New Year’s Eve after the Visa authorization system went into meltdown. The computer authoriszation system could not cope with the huge rush of people in bars and restaurants trying to pay their bills at the same time.
The system is understood to have failed at around 9.30pm for some two hours.
Although some transactions were processed, many were blocked, forcing thousands of people to find alternative ways to pay.
The system relies on card machines at tills making contact with the Visa authorization computers via telephone lines.
When lots of machines are trying to contact the Visa system at the same time, the lines become jammed which means payments cannot be processed.