Visa customers outraged as card payments fail across UK and Europe

A number of visa customers across the UK and Europe reported that their card payments were failing as the company grappled with a service disruption.

Visa said it was working towards resolving the problem on Friday afternoon.

Angry customers took to social media to complain, and it is understood the Bank of England is aware of the issue and is in touch with Visa.

One man named Philip Keeler wrote: "My visa rejected in posh Waitrose of all places. I’m a well to do man, I don’t expect to have my visa declined this is highly embarrassing."

Another person said "Machines were declining any visa cards that were being used to pay for shopping. Happened to me and alot of others while I was in the store."

A visa spokesman said: "Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption.

"This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.

"We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation."

HSBC's UK Twitter account replied to a customer query on Twitter: "We believe there may have recently been issues with Visa's payments processing.

"From what we understand there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering."

Additional reporting by Press Association