Overview
- Card and contactless payments failed at multiple UK supermarkets this evening, leaving shoppers unable to pay by card and causing long queues at some cash machines.
- Worldpay said a third‑party power outage affected transaction authorizations across several of its platforms and that power has been restored while recovery work continues.
- Retailers including Tesco, Morrisons and M&S directed customers to self‑service tills that accept cash, accepted cash where possible and used temporary workarounds that created bottlenecks.
- Shoppers posted widespread reports on social media of chaotic scenes in stores, which users said looked worse because the outage coincided with high footfall during an England match.
- Because Worldpay handles payments for many merchants, the outage highlights how heavy reliance on card and contactless systems can leave customers vulnerable and means some authorizations may still fail as services return to normal.