Glitch zaps some cash cards - from The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/business/biz0107g.htm

Jan. 7 - ALAMOSA - When businessman Richard Nagley used his Liberty Cash card to mail a package from the Alamosa post office on Tuesday, the clerk's computer rejected it and he had to write a check instead. The same thing happened Wednesday and again Thursday.

Nagley's card wasn't the only one refused. There are more than 112,000 Liberty Cash cards in use from California to Florida, said Al DeSarro, a Postal Service spokesman in Denver. An unknown number of those cards, distributed from 2,800 post offices across the country, are affected, he said. The problem is a software glitch with contractor First Data Merchant Systems, DeSarro said. He said it's not a Y2K glitch, even though the problem cropped up after Jan. 1. "We're asking our customers to bear with us for a few days," DeSarro said. "We've been assured that First Data will solve the problem ... real soon." Pete Ziverts, First Data's vice president for corporate communications in Denver, said the affected debit cards expired Dec. 31 but should have automatically been extended.

"They are rejecting it because of the date," Nagley said. "Why is this not a Y2K problem? Duh."

-- Steve Davis (Columbia, MD) (Steve@davislogic.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

This issue was first reported here: Major Multi-system Credit Card Processing Y2K Failure (Jennifer Bunker, jen@bunkergroup.com, 2000-01-06)

-- Steve Davis (Columbia, MD) (Steve@davislogic.com), January 07, 2000.

Y2K Glitch Causes Double Recording On Some Credit-Card Purchases

By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter

RESTON, Va. -- A year-2000-related glitch is causing some credit- and debit-card purchases to be recorded twice. But credit-card systems say they are catching the duplicates and consumers shouldn't worry about excessive billings.

The problem is in credit-card verification software made by CyberCash Inc. A CyberCash spokeswoman said about 50 merchants notified CyberCash this week that they hadn't updated software to fix a Y2K bug.

The spokeswoman said CyberCash had been urging merchants since the spring to update their software. CyberCash says it is the largest maker of verification software, used by roughly 100,000 merchants. The spokeswoman said CyberCash didn't know how many other merchants may have the faulty software.

The problem surfaced late Wednesday when credit-card processors noticed an increase in duplicate transactions. Spokeswomen for Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc. both described the increase as "minor," but declined to provide specific numbers. The Visa spokeswoman says the system typically sees 2,000 to 3,000 duplicates out of 100 million transactions a day.

Visa officials think they have detected all of the duplicates related to the Y2K bug, and consumers shouldn't worry about being billed twice for the same item. "The cardholder impact will be minimal if at all," the spokeswoman said.

-- Steve Davis (Columbia, MD) (Steve@davislogic.com), January 07, 2000.

This report just in from the ICC - they indicated that they did not kow about this until the 6th although the problem had been occuring since the 1st:

Bank credit card companies reported to financial regulators on Thursday, January 6, that they have identified and are taking steps to correct a potential Y2K-glitch involving some credit card transactions. According to the industry, merchants that did not make use of free upgrades provided during 1999 for a software package manufactured by CyberCash, Inc. could experience a "back-office" glitch that produces duplicate postings of charges made after January 1. The problem affects primarily smaller retailers; most major retailers use their own software. Credit card companies normally monitor postings for evidence of double charges and reconcile them with affected merchants before items are posted on cardholder accounts. According to the industry, credit card companies typically see 2,000 to 3,000 duplicates out of 100 million transactions a day.

-- Steve Davis (Columbia, MD) (Steve@davislogic.com), January 07, 2000.