A huge Telstra outage has taken out ATMs and EFTPOS machines around the country, potentially affecting thousands of businesses.

Aussies without cash have been left unable to pay for anything after the outage hit at approximately 3pm AEST.

Thousands of stores are unable to process payments, and Commonwealth and Westpac banks have confirmed their services are also affected.

Telstra has confirmed it’s looking into the issue.

⚠️ We’re currently looking into an issue affecting services including EFTPOS and access to ATMs. We’re sorry if this impacts you. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

— Telstra (@Telstra) July 11, 2019

Founder of EFTM.com Trevor Long tells Merrick Watts the outage seems to be impacting a specific premium Telstra network.

“It’s not affecting everyday people at home because Telstra operates a bunch of different networks. One’s for the average Joe at home, and then they have these premium networks that people like broadcasters and banks buy into for their more important services.

“My understanding is, and this is unconfirmed from Telstra, the Telstra COIN Network, which is what they call the payments network, has had an issue today.

“I believe that a fibre line has been cut either through someone digging or otherwise, and it means every electronic network that uses that network is down. Every bank, every ATM, lots of EFTPOS machines.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview