2024-04-05 23:43:48
A technical disruption in the banking system has led to problems with cashless payment transactions. Numerous savings banks, Volksbanks and Commerzbank were affected. The cause is still unclear.
A major disruption led to nationwide chaos in cashless payment transactions on Thursday morning. Paying with the savings banks’ Girocard was not possible for around two hours in the morning, as a spokeswoman for the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) said upon request.
Commerzbank, Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken also had problems. It is not yet clear why the massive disruption occurred.
Sparkasse has apparently fixed the problem
At many banks, the fault indicators lit up in the morning because of difficulties with card payments. It is currently unclear exactly how many institutions were affected. At least the savings banks, Volks- and Raiffeisenbanks have now solved their problems.
According to the fault reporting portal “alletreib.de”, more than 1,100 faults were registered at the savings banks alone. The website shows a sharp increase in error messages from around 8 a.m. On social media, many customers expressed surprise at the sudden payment problems.
Paying with EC cards in particular proved to be problematic, while credit cards occasionally worked. The banks are already working on a solution to the problem. However, it cannot currently be ruled out that difficulties may arise during the day.
In 2022, devices failed for days
It is not the first time that technical problems have affected cashless payment transactions in Germany. Two years ago there were days of outages due to problems with card readers. At that time, both Visa and Maestro cards were affected, and in many stores it was only possible to pay in cash. Find out how much cash you should have at home for emergencies here.