Power outage disrupts card payments at UK pubs and stores

A power grid disruption caused intermittent transaction authorization failures at Worldpay on Tuesday, affecting card payments at British pubs and supermarkets. Customers reported that contactless payments stopped working at multiple Tesco branches and other stores while football fans watched the England match at pubs and restaurants.

Videos on social media showed long queues at cash machines as some venues announced they would accept only cash.

Cause and company response A Worldpay spokesperson said the UK experienced a power grid disruption causing intermittent transaction authorization issues for some clients. The company stated its technical teams were working to restore full service after a third-party power disruption also produced tokenization request errors on some platforms.

Retailer updates Downdetector recorded more than 1,000 reports of payment problems at Tesco since 8pm. Tesco said the issue with Worldpay affected the supermarket and other businesses taking card payments. A Tesco spokesperson later said the payments issue in store and online had been resolved and apologized for the inconvenience.