Interac users were having issues with their debit payments on Friday, according to third-party website Downdetector.ca and the debit service provider.
The problems appear to have begun around 4 p.m., according to the outage report, and more than 1,500 Interac users reported payment failures around 6 p.m. That number had dropped to 360 users by around 8:30 p.m.
Seventy-eight per cent of the reports said the problem was related to issues with purchases.
Interac acknowledged that some users were having purchasing problems in a social media post.
“We understand some customers are unable to pay with debit at select merchants. Interac services are operating normally,” the debit service provider said. It did not provide any further information.
In a later email to the Star, a spokesperson for Interac said the problem may have stemmed from issues with a payment service provider.
“Interac was informed that a payment service provider may have experienced some issues in processing transactions at selected merchants and the issue was resolved earlier this evening,” the statement reads. “We can confirm that Interac services operated normally throughout the day.”
Users also filed outage reports for issues with several purchase and payment-related services on Downdetector.ca Friday evening, including Visa, Moneris and Mastercard. It is unclear whether there is any connection between these and the Interac outage.
