Mexico City — A widespread outage of Mercado Pago on Wednesday evening left thousands of users unable to make transfers, check balances, or complete in-app transactions, with service still partially disrupted hours later.
Reports began flooding in shortly before 8 p.m. Central Time, with users in Yucatán, the State of Mexico, and northern states experiencing difficulties logging into the app and performing basic functions.
As of around 9 p.m. Central Time — 10 p.m. in Quintana Roo and 8 p.m. on the Pacific coast — the platform remained operational only in a limited capacity. Users reported that while card payments linked to the account were still possible, transfers, balance inquiries, and other in-app operations were blocked.
The issue also affected users in other countries, including Argentina, where the digital wallet experienced similar failures, confirming an international scope to the disruption.
Social media platforms saw a surge of complaints, with users sharing screenshots of error messages and expressing frustration over the inability to use the app during peak evening hours, impacting both consumers and businesses.
Mercado Pago initially attributed the failures to problems with an external provider but has not issued an official update specifying when full service will be restored.
The prolonged outage highlights the growing reliance on digital payment systems and the immediate impact when they fail, particularly during periods of high commercial activity.
