Cash Supports German Shoppers Amid Nationwide Card Payment Outages
Jun 6, 2022
German shoppers have been advised to ensure they have cash to hand when visiting supermarkets and petrol stations amid days of nationwide outages in card payment systems.
A specific type of card machine—the H5000—developed a fault towards the end of May, leading retailers across the country to introduce cash-only policies. Major supermarkets including Edeka, Netto and REWE were affected alongside smaller, independent retailers and petrol stations.
Attention! An important notice for you: due to a Germany-wide malfunction, card payments are currently not possible in our stores.
The Local—an English-language German news website—recommended everyone keep cash available to ensure they could pay for essentials, pointing out that ATMs were unaffected by the outages.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported on 1 June that a fix was being rolled out by the card machine manufacturer, Verifone. It added industry experts had estimated around one in ten card machines across the country were affected, and suggested the failure was likely to prompt mass replacement of the units.