[UPDATED] VISA is no longer having a technical nightmare as it's payment network crashes in Europe

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, mynameisjuan said:

I have never heard of anyone paying for a card. How much do they cost?

 

I'm also surprised that @Teddy07 had to pay for a card.

Your bank typically gives you one for free.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

I'm also surprised that @Teddy07 had to pay for a card.

Your bank typically gives you one for free*.

ftfy.

 

It's not really for free since they know people will be late on their payments and will have to pay interest on their credit. Also some banks do have a transaction fee. And they really make money on people withdrawing cash from credit cards .

[Christophe Corazza]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

ftfy.

 

It's not really for free since they know people will be late on their payments and will have to pay interest on their credit. Also some banks do have a transaction fee. And they really make money on people withdrawing cash from credit cards .

 

That's typically when you use the card outside the EU.

Most banks don't charge you anything inside the EU, and especially in your own country.

[mynameisjuan]

11 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

I'm also surprised that @Teddy07 had to pay for a card.

Your bank typically gives you one for free.

I know they do. Just curious what it does cost though 

[Teddy07]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Edit: What do you mean by "you have to normally pay a fee for credits cards in Germany" ?

1

You have to pay a yearly fee for your credit card. The amount depends on which credit card you have but let's say the yearly fee is around ~20 €.

49 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Typically you get a free MasterCard or Visa from your bank.

This is not the case in Germany. You get a debit card which includes the Maestro option. It works similar to a credit card but is more restricted. 

 

I am the only one in my family (5 people) with a credit card. I just got one question.

I can only purchase stuff if I have enough money on my bank account and it will be written off my bank account 2 days after a purchase. I always thought that it will be written off after 30 days so I am not even sure if my Visa card is a real credit card. How does it work for you?

 

@Christophe Corazza

 

Germans are known for having no credit because of these two reasons.

 

I tried to buy a smartphone a few years ago from the google store but I could not because only a credit card was accepted. I asked my parents, sisters and two relatives but nobody had a credit card. 

[bcredeur97]

at least Cryptocurrency (if it was actually used everywhere) doesn't have this problem.

Wait! what if this is a big scheme to promote bitcoin! Lol

[mynameisjuan]

5 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

at least Cryptocurrency (if it was actually used everywhere) doesn't have this problem.

Volatility is far worse than connection issues

[FlightRisk]

Well this is fun. I just heard and I literally just got up and went to try and get cash out and I actually could at one cash machine.

 

For the UK readers -  Also MasterCard does seem to be having issues as well. I tried 2 ATM's and neither Visa or MasterCard worked (RBS I think) and 1 Co-op ATM and I was able to use my Visa debit card, didn't try MasterCard as it is Credit.

[Christophe Corazza]

10 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

Wait! what if this is a big scheme to promote bitcoin!

 

I highly doubt it 

[laminutederire]

20 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

You have to pay a yearly fee for your credit card. The amount depends on which credit card you have but let's say the yearly fee is around ~20 €.

This is not the case in Germany. You get a debit card which includes the Maestro option. It works similar to a credit card but is more restricted. 

 

I am the only one in my family (5 people) with a credit card. I just got one question.

I can only purchase stuff if I have enough money on my bank account and it will be written off my bank account 2 days after a purchase. I always thought that it will be written off after 30 days so I am not even sure if my Visa card is a real credit card. How does it work for you?

 

@Christophe Corazza

 

Germans are known for having no credit because of these two reasons.

 

I tried to buy a smartphone a few years ago from the google store but I could not because only a credit card was accepted. I asked my parents, sisters and two relatives but nobody had a credit card. 

It's the same in Switzerland for everyone and in France for minors.

But yours doesn't seem to be a credit card as well. The whole point of the credit card is that you can spend money you don't have. Debit card on the other hand, you can o of spend what you get and the bank does not allow you to make credits with it.

I'm French studying in Switzerland and I've never noticed a difference between the two to be fair. That's because I keep my balance in order! Basically the only difference is when you get your card stolen and when you don't have any money left on your accounts. In the latter case, you can still pay and get a negative balance. You'll then pay fees accordingly as interests from the bank (not good). In some countries that also means that you cannot pay on the internet with it either (like in Switzerland), which make that type of card somewhat attractive in the sense that if someone steals it they really cannot do anything with it without the PIN code.

[ItsMitch]

18 minutes ago, FlightRisk said:

For the UK readers -  Also MasterCard does seem to be having issues as well. I tried 2 ATM's and neither Visa or MasterCard worked (RBS I think) and 1 Co-op ATM and I was able to use my Visa debit card, didn't try MasterCard as it is Credit

FeelsBad, About to go town to Tesco for some food but their ATMs are down and credit card machines are fucked

[Kamina]

And they said bitcoin would be affected if the internet went offline. 

 

Just look at these big, "legit" banks.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

1 hour ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Typically you get a free MasterCard or Visa from your bank.

Not in Germany. You get a "Girocard" which works in German ATMs and shops, but it's not even a full debit card - it doesn't have a card number, for example, but just your bank account number printed on it, and has no security code on the back (in other words: can't be used for online purchases).

It's not like in other countries where banks typically give you a Visa Electron / Maestro full-fledged debit card with your account.

 

You can, of course, get a credit card (which I also got for free in Spain), and they'll try hard to convince you to, but you'll have to pay its fee (my bank would highlight "free for 1 year", but afterwards it was €49/year).

 

There's a reason Germans are still crazy about bank transfers (similar to how Americans are strangely in love with checks)  

[asus killer]

it's the first day of the month, everyone received the paycheck already, just use cash. Shit happens even to ViSA. People make big deals out of everything.

[Gullerback]

My BMO (canada) card has been getting rejected all week randomly.  It seems to have stopped as of 2 days ago tho.  Seems everyone in my town was getting rejected

[sazrocks]

VISA IT be like:

[onlybuilt4cubanxlinx]

5 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

This is why you should always carry some cash around with you, I cannot believe the amount of people who don't, one glitch and that is it!  If we allow cash to get obsolete, big brother will always know what you are spending on.

Thanks for the advice Pops.

[elfensky]

Ooooh, so that's why Android Pay suddenly stopped working, but I could still pay using the physical card. Interesting.

[Christophe Corazza]

42 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Ya, but when you buy from legit stores you're still logging it.

 

true

[Princess Luna]

I have a Cielo and a Mastercard.

[ItsMitch]

Update: 

Visa has apologized for the incident and found it related to a hardware failure (they was probably using Shintel CPUs ayyy)

Quote

 

Earlier today, Visa had a system failure that impacted customers across Europe.

 

Our goal is to ensure all Visa cards work reliably 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We fell well short of this goal today and we apologise to all of our partners, and most especially, to Visa cardholders.

 

Visa cardholders can now use their Visa cards as we are currently operating at close to normal levels.

 

The issue was the result of a hardware failure. We have no reason to believe this was associated with any unauthorised access or malicious event.

 

Services should begin to return to normal during the next few hours. 

[DaRk0]

@SC2Mitch

 

Not sure which part of the infrastructure failed (no time to read at this moment), however VISA runs a lot of IBM stuff as well.

They use a lot of IBMz stuff, especially for security and fast payment processing. Though IBM z Systems hardly ever fail.

[Curufinwe_wins]

As an american currently in Switzerland, this affected me heavily and frustratingly last night. Nothing would work and I didnt have cash on hand because Zurich works great with contactless. Was so confused and frustrated when I couldn't figure out a way to pay for groceries without taking my spare us cash to an exchange.

 

Thankfully it's been working again the last couple of hours.

[Tieox]

I vote start trading using llamas  

[ItsMitch]

1 hour ago, DaRk0 said:

@SC2Mitch

 

Not sure which part of the infrastructure failed (no time to read at this moment), however VISA runs a lot of IBM stuff as well.

They use a lot of IBMz stuff, especially for security and fast payment processing. Though IBM z Systems hardly ever fail.

VISA didn't specify what kind of infrastructure failed to the press, sadly.