The issue, which is now said to be resolved, hit the tills at several retailers across the country this afternoon.

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Unhappy Maccies fans took to social media after being told at the tills that they could only use cash.

One tagged McDonald’s on X, formerly known as Twitter, and said: “Your London Islington branch is taking cash only but only one person was on the till and no one informing customers why.

“Causing animosity and everyone leaving and a lot of time wasted. Not loving it.”

Another wrote: “I get there’s an issue with card payments but their lack of response is the issue I’ve raised.

“Tills are there and staff but no one trying to help, also Visa worked elsewhere.”

A third posted: “Drove to two McDonald’s and both card machines are down ffs, who even carries cash on them anymore.”

While a fourth commented: “Long queues at the cash machine on Teesside park due to card machines going down in M&S and McDonald’s.”

And another said: “McDonald’s the card machine isn’t working, systems down, be f***ed when everything goes cashless.”

The card machine problem, which appears to have started at around midday, is understood to have affected Maccies checkouts nationwide.

A spokesperson said: “We are aware of a card payment issue that impacted our restaurants for a brief period earlier today.

“The problem impacted multiple retailers across a number of markets.

“The issue has now been resolved and customers will be able to use card payments as normal.”

Elsewhere shoppers browsing the aisles at M&S and those picking up furniture from Ikea also reported problems.

One said: “So the card machines aren’t working in Ikea and cash only at tills.

“And they want us to be a cashless society trolleys abandoned everywhere round store. Waste of a trip except for breakfasts.”

Another posted on X: “Just been to your Kendal store. Your card machine did not take my Mastercard or American Express.

“Was made to leave the shopping. Staff would not take my ID and I pay later.

“No car park refund offered. My cards work as I had filled up with fuel. Great service!”

And a third wrote: “Card payments crashed across entire #ikea network, queues are miles long.

“Apparently other companies like M&S also experiencing difficulties. ”

A spokesperson for Ikea also confirmed that the card machines at each of the chain’s 21 shops went temporarily offline.

They said: “Following a technical issue involving a third-party payment platform, Ikea stores were unable to accept card payments for approximately one hour.

“All systems are now back up and running.

“We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused.”

The Sun has contacted M&S for comment.

Other retailers are also said to have been affected.

Shoppers and diners have also posted that the earlier issues today have since been resolved.

According to outage tracking website DownDetector, Visa card users have been reporting issues this afternoon.

At around 12.15pm there were more than 400 reports, the majority of which related to payments.

The number has started to dwindle now with just 122 at the time of writing.

While the issue seems to have been fixed now it’s a good idea to take some cash out with you if you’re heading out this afternoon.

It comes after Tesco customers were left fuming when contactless payments went down at all UK supermarkets earlier this week.

Reports suggested that other supermarket giants, such as Sainsbury’s, were also experiencing the same outage.

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