The approval can happen inside the card.
During an outage, the usual online checks cannot run. The customer inserts an eligible physical card and enters the PIN. If that card has the offline function, its chip can authorise the purchase up to a set amount, and the terminal stores the transaction.
When communications return, the terminal sends the saved transaction to the acquirer. The acquirer pays the merchant, while the card issuer deducts the money from the customer's account and pays the acquirer.
The fallback covers food, medicines and fuel.

Four Scout sections are walking for a new home.
2nd Goring's Squirrels, Beavers, Cubs and Scouts will join a seafront route in stages, then finish together in Worthing. The group currently meets in a church hall and is raising £1,000 towards rebuilding its former HQ for nearly 100 young people.
