During mass network outages, how come credit works but not debit?

Question

If you’re Canadian, you’re probably experiencing a network outage right now.

In: 33

Answer 1

Because it’s a different network. No money actually moves when you do a credit transaction. You tell the credit company to give money on your behalf. It’s done just over the internet and can be queaed up and released. Card transactions get verified and money “moves” immediately.

So they’re different networks and if the core goes down the whole thing breaks.