Disruption of card payment systems (Nets) is causing widespread chaos for Danes at home and abroad.

Widespread technical problems in card payment systems have disrupted bank and credit card payments, significantly affecting card users both inside and outside Denmark.

Nets' media director, Søren Winge, announced details of the situation on Saturday evening, July 19, 2025, stating that many payments were reported as "rejected" not only in Denmark, but throughout the Nordic countries, including Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. He indicated that it was still too early to determine the cause of the outage or the date of a full repair, but confirmed that some successful transactions had begun to appear shortly before 10 pm, with the overall performance of the system being weak.

By 22:00, Nets reported that services were gradually returning to normal, although some fluctuations were likely to persist for several hours later, and the technical reasons behind the outage were still unknown.

Impact of payment system disruptions in Denmark and abroad

In Denmark, the disruption prevented many payment methods, while some were able to continue using Dankort cards or traditional credit cards in “offline mode,” a feature offered by some stores such as Netto, Føtex and Bilka.

Internationally, there have been reports from several countries, including Germany, France, Italy, and also from regions such as South Africa, of payment problems, particularly with mobile applications and cards such as Mastercard and Visa Debit, which has prevented many Danes from using payment cards while traveling during the peak summer holiday season.

A drama of death threats and laxity when crossing bridges

According to local sources and media, at the Øresund Bridge towards Sweden, the bridge authorities decided to allow cars to pass for free during the technical malfunction of the payment systems, considering that the error was not on the part of the users or the bridge. About 200 cars benefited from this, according to what was confirmed by Robert Richt, the operational executive director of the Øresund Bridge.

Conversely, at the Storebælt Bridge in Denmark, the malfunction caused widespread chaos, with long queues of cars, rising tensions, insults and even threats directed at bridge staff, and attempts to vandalize barriers to allow toll-free passage. The Sydsjællands og Lolland-Falsters police announced Sunday morning that they had received several reports of vandalism against the barriers and that some staff members had received death threats, describing the behavior as “unacceptable.”.

Personal testimonies from those affected

Danish travelers were also affected. The Svendsen family in Venice encountered a problem paying their dinner bill using five different cards, but the restaurant, understanding the situation, allowed them to leave without paying, according to their statements to TV 2. Natalia Svendsen said, "They completely understood the situation and let us leave." On the other side of the world, Mathilde Kruth, a 19-year-old Danish woman, was in South Carolina, USA, when she encountered a problem trying to pay at a Target store. An elderly American man paid her bill after her card got stuck in the machine. She was unaware at the time that the issue was due to a general Nets outage until she returned and saw a video about it on TikTok. .

Repercussions on the business sector

Tivoli also suffered economically on Saturday evening due to the disruption during the Tom Jones concert, according to an official statement by CEO Susanne Mørch Koch, who noted the need for “a stronger communication structure and a quick and transparent response when such disruptions occur, especially during the peak summer season.”.

Official response and recommendations

According to BT, Søren Winge stated that the system is now operating normally, but there may still be fluctuations in some locations or terminals, and work is continuing to understand the underlying causes of the outage. .

Salling Group, owner of Netto, Føtex and Bilka stores, also reported that they have the ability to activate contactless payment mode through Dankort cards or other cards, which enabled them to reduce the impact on customers during the crisis, a result of previous experience in such cases.