Thousands of shoppers and football fans were forced to return to notes and coins on Tuesday night after a power outage at Worldpay, one of the world’s largest payments companies, knocked out card transactions in bars, supermarkets and restaurants across the country.
The disruption could not have come at a worse time for the tourist trade. Malfunctioning terminals and terminals began to fail as fans settled in to watch England’s World Cup match against Ghana, the kind of game that turns an ordinary Tuesday into one of the busiest trading nights of the year for licensed venues.
Customers reported that they were unable to pay by card at many stores, including Tesco branches, while videos circulated on social media showed queues running out of cash machines as drinkers and diners scrambled to finish off. Many pubs and entertainment venues have posted notices that they are only accepting cash until the program returns.
Worldpay attributed the error to a third-party power issue rather than any failure of its platforms. “The UK has experienced power grid disruptions, causing occasional authorization issues for some Worldpay clients,” a spokesperson said. “Our technical teams are involved and are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
In a statement on its website, the company added: “A third-party power outage is causing occasional transaction authorization issues and token request errors on some Worldpay platforms. Our technical teams have restored service on some platforms and are continuing to resolve the issues to restore full service as soon as possible.”
Monitoring site Downdetector has logged more than 1,000 reports of payment problems at Tesco since around 8pm. Responding to a customer at X, the supermarket said: “There is an issue with Worldpay at the moment which affects us and other businesses that accept card payments.” A Tesco spokesperson later confirmed that the problem had been fixed, saying: “The issue affecting in-store and online payments has now been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Frustration among consumers is as much about timing as the error itself. “The global outage of Worldpay, has left busy pubs in the UK unable to sell to cashless customers, not good,” wrote one customer. Another wrote: “England game busy, busy and Worldpay going down on card terminals. Lots of sectors reporting terminal problems going down.”
For all the disruption, the episode is a useful reminder of how well Britain has moved away from physical money, and how that leaves small firms when the pipelines fail. Contactless now accounts for around three-quarters of all debit card transactions in the UK, according to UK financial data, with supermarkets among the most common places people tap to pay. As Business Matters has previously reported, volatility is at record levels and there is no desire to return to cash.
That simplicity comes with a risk of focus. When one processor with a large market share goes dark, the effect quickly ripples through thousands of unrelated businesses, from the corner store to the national grocer. A bar that went quietly card-only a few years ago suddenly can’t take a dime, and few customers now carry cash to bail it out.
This incident is against a strong background of controlling the firms that manage the country’s payment channels. From March 2025, payment and e-money firms have had to comply with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, which require them to identify their most important services, set a tolerance for how long disruptions can last, and prove that they can stay within those limits. A blackout that prevents retail trade on one of the busiest nights of the football calendar is exactly the type of situation that the rules are designed to test for stress.
For SME owners, a practical lesson is the value of backup. Places with a second terminal on a separate finder, active currency float or a simple offline payment option have been able to stay in business while competitors are turning customers away. Many small users are rethinking their relationship with bank card machines in search of lower fees and better terms, and durability should be included on that checklist alongside price.
There are also security dimensions. Nights with ticket systems and long queues are precisely when workers cut corners and opportunists try their luck, so it helps to understand how to keep cashless customer payments secure even when technology is under strain.
Worldpay said service was restored to some platforms within hours and that engineers were working to bring others back online. For punters watching a sell-out crowd struggle to buy a round midway through the second half, the big question is not whether the show is back, but how they can ensure the next blackout doesn’t cost them.
