Denmark payment company Nets outage on 21 May 2026

[peteb]

Large card payments outage throughout the country - The Copenhagen Post

On Thursday morning, the payment company Nets experienced an outage affecting card payments, causing the majority of transactions to be rejected. The incident began around 9:00 AM. Peter Glüsing Pedersen, Head of Media Relations Nordics at Nets, stated that the cause of the problem has been...

cphpost.dk

On Thursday morning, the payment company Nets experienced an outage affecting card payments, causing the majority of transactions to be rejected. The incident began around 9:00 AM. Peter Glüsing Pedersen, Head of Media Relations Nordics at Nets, stated that the cause of the problem has been identified and they are working to restore normal service...

Currently (21/05/2026, 1350) no cash machines working in Denmark nor card payments being taken. Hopefully rail companies will be lenient with those who don't carry cash (95% of Danes!).

Apparently, according to the retailer I just spoke to, Danes with a phone-pay app can still pay, but not by card, nor will their app work abroad. Meanwhile no foreigners in Denmark are able to pay by card at present.....!!

 

[Gloster]

Currently (21/05/2026, 1350) no cash machines working in Denmark nor card payments being taken. Hopefully rail companies will be lenient with those who don't carry cash (95% of Danes!).

There doesn’t seem to be anything on DSB’s own site, despite some of their ticketing options apparently being affected. Maybe they are just leaving it to the general media to tell everybody that they are all…

 

[AdamWW]

I can't remember the last time that all the cash in a country suddenly stopped working without any warning.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I can't remember the last time that all the cash in a country suddenly stopped working without any warning.

Unless you walk around with a grand in your pocket (risky) so you'd definitely have the cash you needed for any possible purchase, the cash machines would also have been an issue.

 

[AdamWW]

Unless you walk around with a grand in your pocket (risky) so you'd definitely have the cash you needed for any possible purchase, the cash machines would also have been an issue.

Well that rather depends on what I need to do while card payments are down.

I don't need a vast amount of money in my pocket to be able to get myself lunch rather than having to go hungry until I get home.

Or maybe I can't get home either because I don't have any money for the train.

 

[Gloster]

It appears to have been working again around 16.00 (local time), but there were a number of ‘aftershock’ problems over the next hour or so. (‘Aftershock‘ was used as Denmark suffered a minor earthquake yesterday, but there doesn’t seem to be a connection.) Not everywhere appears to have suffered: the Storebælt Link had an alternative system that could be started up quickly.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is Denmark like Switzerland in most transactions going via one merchant processor rather than a range of different ones as is the case in the UK?

 

[Gloster]

Is Denmark like Switzerland in most transactions going via one merchant processor rather than a range of different ones as is the case in the UK?

It looks as though a company called Nets, or its Danish subsidiary, is either the main or the sole processor of card transactions in the country. However, I don’t understand the system as I am an habitual cash payer.

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

I can't remember the last time that all the cash in a country suddenly stopped working without any warning.

Happened to us in Spain during an almost 1 day outage when the electricity grid collapsed last year

 

[AdamWW]

Happened to us in Spain during an almost 1 day outage when the electricity grid collapsed last year

How did that stop people accepting cash?

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

Ah sorry misread the post! Woops! But some shops just closed in that case as they couldn't put stuff through the register or log the stock out (no power = no systems). Most shops were happy to take cash though. In fact, if there's a European country where card payments all fail, Spain is one of the countries where cash is still widely used as it's common here for people to get let's say... Cash discounts... No need to declare any sales to the authorities and skip the tax

 

[peteb]

Seems to be ok now (2000hrs).

 

[andersj]

The central bank of Denmark (Danmarks Nationalbank) recommends that every person hold 250 DKK (29£) in cash for emergencies, preferably in coins and small notes. That's in addition to the 72 hour supplies of food, water and other necessities you are recommended to have in stock at home.

 

[AdamWW]

Ah sorry misread the post! Woops! But some shops just closed in that case as they couldn't put stuff through the register or log the stock out (no power = no systems). Most shops were happy to take cash though.

I did guess and looking back I realise that my response was rather rude, particularly since the attempt at humour in the way I wrote my original comment made it very easy to misread.

My apologies.

 

[EnriqueEspaña]

I did guess and looking back I realise that my response was rather rude, particularly since the attempt at humour in the way I wrote my original comment made it very easy to misread.

My apologies.

No danger, offense is taken not given!