- McDonald’s, Ikea, Popeyes and others say they can’t pay by credit card.
- Payment processor Fiserv said its services were discontinued on Friday.
- Earlier in the day, Chick-fil-A went down and distributed free meals.
- Visit the Insider Business section for more stories.
Companies in the United States are accepting cash only, as their credit card payment systems are inactive.
Fiserv, a leading payment provider in the United States, told Insider: “A broad disruption to the Internet service provider has impacted several companies today.” Ann Cave, a company spokeswoman, added in an e-mail: “Some Fiserv services that rely on Internet connectivity have been discontinued. Most have been restored and we are fully focused on restoring the rest.” Fiserv declined to name his Internet service provider.
Twitter customers reported interruptions in Ikea, forever 21, McDonald’s and Popeyes, as well as in places like a car wash and the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. Company representatives were not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Chick-fil-A’s payment machines were out of order earlier in the day, prompting her to distribute free meals. Miami International Airport put a statement inform customers of an outage across the county with credit card machines inside taxis.
Customers called Fiserv on Twitter. “Our credit card payment processing system is out of service,” tweeted the Texas State Public Accounting Council. “The shutdown occurred with First Data / Fiserv, which is one of the largest payment processing systems in the country.”
In 2019, Fiserv acquired another payments company known as First Data in a $ 22 billion deal. The acquisition reflected a trend of consolidation in the payment processing industry amid the worldwide shift from cash to credit cards.
Other major payment providers, Worldpay and Global Payments, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the interruption.
The Down Detector, which tracks interruptions, reported an increase in problems for people with Visa or Mastercard credit cards.
Mastercard spokesman Seth Eisen told Insider: “As far as Mastercard is concerned, we are operating normally today.”
“Visa is aware of a service disruption with a third party provider, used by some merchants, which is causing internet problems that may have impacted a small number of cardholders today,” a Visa spokesman told Insider. “Visa systems were not affected.”