Late millennium bug disables German credit cards
By UK CreditCards.com
Published: 6 January 2010
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A computer bug in Germany has impacted millions of debit and credit cards, it was confirmed January 6.
Public sector bank representative the DSGV Group announced that 3.5m credit cards and 20m debit cards contain software that is unable to process the number 2010.
Although tens of thousands of ATMs have already been fixed to allow consumers to withdraw cash, the group noted that some payment terminals may not accept the cards.
The glitch, which affects the cards' microchips, is being described as a 'late millennium' phenomenon, in reference to the concerns a decade ago about software accepting the change from 1999 to the year 2000.
According to reports, the situation has caught the majority of German banks completely off-guard and some customers have also reported being unable to use their cards outside the country.
The news is another blow for the German credit card sector after it was forced to recall a number of cards last year following a data breach occurring in Spain.
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