A recent breakdown at Nets, the Danish payment processing system, highlighted the advantage held by consumers and retailers who rely on traditional payment methods during such disruptions. Henrik Lundgaard Sedenmark, Head of Payments at the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv), explained that customers with physical Dankort and stores equipped to accept them can continue transactions even when the system is offline.

The key is Dankort terminals operating in offline mode, enabling payments from most cards, including Dankort. While the switch to offline mode may be automatic in some stores, others require manual activation by employees.

However, not all payment methods remain functional during Nets outages. Visa and Mastercard payments may be affected, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay typically do not work.

Major supermarket chains are actively working to address this limitation. According to Dansk Erhverv, the top five grocery chains are developing solutions to enable the use of digital wallets like Apple Pay during future breakdowns, although a specific timeline remains unclear.

The ability to process payments offline extends beyond grocery stores. Payment recipients can establish agreements with their acquirer to enable offline mode for cards other than Dankort.

The Nets breakdown, which lasted approximately three hours on Saturday evening, is now resolved, although some customers may still experience fluctuations. The cause of the disruption remains unknown.