Debit payment issue at ‘selected merchants’ resolved, Interac says

The Interac logo is shown in Toronto on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Joe O'Connal

Debit card payment issues experienced by some Canadian shoppers on Friday have been resolved, Interac says.

More than 1,560 users reported issues Friday afternoon, according to third-party website Downdetector.ca. The majority of those who filed outage reports said they had issues making purchases.

At the height of the issue, several stores in Canada warned customers that they would have to pay in cash.

On X, Interac acknowledged that some users were experiencing debit-related issues.

“We understand some customers are unable to pay with debit at select merchants,” the statement read. “Interac services are operating normally.”

The company said it was not an issue related to its systems.

On Friday evening, an Interac spokesperson said in an email to CTV News that it had been informed the problem was tied to a “payment service provider.” This issue meant that transactions at some stores couldn’t be processed.

This issue has SINCE been resolved, Interac said, repeating that its services were not behind the problem.

No further details were provided.

In addition to the debit issues, Downdetector.ca showed user-filed outage reports for several bank-related services Friday, including Visa, CIBC, Tangerine, TD, RBC, Mastercard and Scotiabank. It is unclear whether there was any connection between the issues.