Customers across the UK and wider Europe are facing problems paying with their Visa cards.

The company says it is experiencing “service disruption” and is working to resolve the issue.

Visa users have taken to social media to complain, and it is understood the Bank of England is aware of the issue and is in touch with Visa.

A Visa spokesman said: “Visa is currently experiencing a service disruption.

“This incident is preventing some Visa transactions in Europe from being processed.

“We are investigating the cause and working as quickly as possible to resolve the situation.”

HSBC’s UK Twitter account replied to a customer query on Twitter: “We believe there may have recently been issues with Visa’s payments processing.

“From what we understand there are still intermittent issues but services are slowly recovering.”