Nationwide says card payment problem 'been resolved'
The Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, has apologised to customers who have been experiencing difficulties with card payments.
A spokeswoman said the the problem had now been fixed.
The issue disrupted payments in shops, but cash machines and internet transactions were not affected.
"For a limited period this afternoon, some of our customers experienced problems making card payments," said a spokeswoman.
"This matter has now been resolved and the card payment process is working normally," she added.
Nationwide apologised for the inconvenience, but was not able to say what caused it.
Neither is it known how many customers experienced difficulties.
One customer, Stuart Meale, said he was stuck at an airport in Iceland, with no means to pay.
"Only have Nationwide and it is not working. When will it be fixed? Stranded at airport," he tweeted.
"I'm going to waste eight hours of travelling because of this. Not happy at all," he said.
It is the latest in a number of problems for the Nationwide, which is the UK's largest building society with four million customers.
In September 2013, some customers found their accounts were incorrectly showing they had no money in them.
And in July 2012 over 700,000 customers found that payments had been taken twice from their accounts.
In January this year, some account holders with Lloyds Banking Group - including the Halifax, Bank of Scotland and the TSB - found their cards had stopped working over a weekend.
Royal Bank of Scotland suffered a similar problem in December, after a million customers were unable to withdraw cash or pay for goods.