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Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

theguardian.com

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Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#121

Post by chipperyman573 »

davnicwil wrote: post #82
anoncoward111 wrote: post #71

Ironically my credit card info literally got stolen at a restaurant last night and most of the purchases they tried to make were declined hahahahah Honestly, I really enjoy using my credit card. I can buy anything, anytime, online, the customer service department always resolves fraud quickly, and they even pay me to use the damn thing

I know, it seems great. But who is paying for that fraud protection? Who is paying for that customer service team? Who is paying for the fact you get paid to use it? In the end.. It's you, through slightly higher prices on everything you buy every day because retailers have to price in the cost of credit card fees that pay for all that.

In the end it's the (usually) poor people who bought more than they could afford (either because they needed food or because they couldn't control their impulse buys) and are stuck paying interest on things they bought years ago

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#122

Post by thesimon »

thorin wrote: post #99
steve_gh wrote: post #70

I'm a Brit currently in France Can't get cash from any ATM right now using my Visa Debit card

Went to Tesco, uk around 430pm. they said they'd had card problems all afternoon. my visa debit went through fine.

>my visa debit went through fine.

Might've been an offline payment, do you see it in your online banking?

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#123

Post by makomk »

falcon620 wrote: post #100
Filligree wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visa Debit, though?

"it's all mastercard/visa now" shows us he/she likely doesn't understand the vast difference between debit and credit cards. If anyone from the UK who does understand that difference would chime in, that would be helpful.

It's all Mastercard/Visa now in the UK, for both debit and credit cards - and I think Visa is probably the more common of the two these days. Debit cards are pretty much always Visa here and have been for about a decade now.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#124

Post by Psilidae »

Keloo wrote: post #58

Hey people I suggest revolut.com Make it an alternative it deserve!

That seems like a really cool concept. But also way too free. How are they making money?

Their privacy policy (which was hard to find) doesn't describe how they handle your transaction data, yet almost half of the policy is describing how they're going to collect and disclose (web) information for advertising.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#125

Post by falcon620 »

makomk wrote: post #123
falcon620 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"it's all mastercard/visa now" shows us he/she likely doesn't understand the vast difference between debit and credit cards. If anyone from the UK who does understand that difference would chime in, that would be helpful.

It's all Mastercard/Visa now in the UK, for both debit and credit cards - and I think Visa is probably the more common of the two these days. Debit cards are pretty much always Visa here and have been for about a decade now.

Yeah, that's not helpful, I'm afraid. Also demonstrably incorrect. Amex is still operating in the UK, for example.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#126

Post by crysin »

greenshackle2 wrote: post #105
merinowool wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That works fine until people sleepwalk into cashless society and then someone from the government will think you are undesirable and delete your assets.

Do you suggest we keep savings in cash and physical bonds, stock certificates and gold ingots under the mattress? I pay cash often but even so I very rarely have more than $1000 in cash at any given time.

Which is smart because at least in the US there's a large portion of the country where police can use civil forfeiture to take your money, even if you are not guilty of any crime.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#128

Post by justboxing »

ktta wrote: post #115
justboxing wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and they even pay me to use the damn thing I understand you are referring to Cashback "Rewards" but at the end of the day, a credit card is still a Loan. You are borrowing money from the company to pay for goods and services and for all legal purposes you are a debtor.

How does this matter (apart from semantics) if one pays the balance therefore doesn't accrue any interest. They are still 'getting paid', right?

It's more than semantics. I once cancelled my Chase credit card and paid (or thought I paid off ) the balance in full. Turns out, it accrued some interest ( $8.56 to be precise) from the time of cancellation to the end of the billing cycle. Chase claimed that they sent me a statement (this was circa 2005) but I never got it. A month later I moved, and it kept going to the old address. A year later, a collection agent found me in San Francisco, just to collect that $8.56 amount and the whole thing ended up ruining my credit score for a few years. I asked them why they didn't call me, it's not like it was a huge debt that I ran away from. They gave me the cookie cutter answer "We sent you multiple statements."

TL;DR: The "pay off balance within the month grace period" works only if you are on top of it all the time. Miss something even once, or you move or are overseas or something, then their penalties, fees and everything else kicks in.

Again, it's a Loan, so all the operations and consequences of taking on a debt applies to credit cards, and to you as the borrower.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#129

Post by thesimon »

wgyn wrote: post #119

One thing to note: Visa Europe and Visa are distinct systems[0] and were distinct entities until Visa Europe was re-acquired[1] by Visa in 2015. [0] Source: I used to work in payments [1] https://www.visaeurope.com/newsroom/news/vi-to-acquire-ve

>until Visa Europe was re-acquired[0] by Visa in 2015.

Sadly. Visa Europe had some quite good policies such as banning ATM surcharges. It also made the payment sector seem a bit more european, now it's back to the US-duopoly.

On topic: Visa Europe cards are denied when used in other countries outside of Visa Europe.

Re: Visa card network crashes, causing increased decline rates across UK and Europe

#130

Post by subcosmos »

gargravarr wrote: post #24

What's the betting someone pushed something to production on a Friday afternoon and has now gone to the pub?

Someone can't push the fix right now because they are stuck in vim trying to save the git commit message
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