The relaunch introduces the company’s first debit and credit cards in the UK and a new free loyalty programme called PayPal+, aimed at rewarding customers for their everyday spending.

Nearly two years after reorganising its operations following Brexit, PayPal is refocusing on British consumers with a £150 million investment to expand its products and strengthen its local presence.

This will also boost the company’s competitive edge with platforms such as Apple Pay, Revolut, and Klarna, all of which have grown fast in the UK’s digital payments sector.

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Through the new offering, nearly 30 million PayPal users in the UK can now earn points through PayPal+, redeemable at checkout across millions of online stores worldwide.

Every 1,000 points equals £10, and users can stack their PayPal+ points with other loyalty schemes. Membership is free, and the tier system, Blue, Gold, and Black, offers rewards, with the top tiers providing up to 50% more value, exclusive perks, and VIP experiences.

PayPal’s Debit Card, available for the first time in the UK, links directly to a user’s PayPal wallet and can be used globally without transaction fees.

Customers using the card while paying for everyday purchases will earn ten times more points. The debit card can also be added to smartphones for contactless payments, providing both convenience and flexibility.

The company is also expanding PayPal Credit to work in physical stores through virtual and physical cards. Customers can earn loyalty points whether they pay online or in-store, combining credit flexibility with added benefits. PayPal’s popular “Pay in 3” Buy Now, Pay Later option is active and now earns users PayPal+ points as well.

Beyond payments, PayPal is building brand partnerships to enhance its loyalty programme. Collaborations with Live Nation UK will give PayPal+ members early access to festivals and exclusive on-site experiences. More partnerships are expected to be announced soon.

Speaking on the relaunch, Diego Scotti, general manager of PayPal’s Consumer Group, said:

“This is the start of an exciting new chapter for PayPal in the UK. We’ve listened to our customers and reimagined our products into one unified solution, offering the smarter way to pay both online and in-stores. With PayPal+, we’ve flipped the script on loyalty. 

“That means no fees where others charge, a new debit card that delivers 10 times as many points, and more ways to get rewarded for everyday spend, including Buy Now Pay Later. This will redefine what value looks like with every payment.”

Tamer El-Emary, general manager of PayPal UK, added, “Our investment reflects a deep commitment to British consumers, businesses, and communities. We’ve listened to our customers and built products that rethink how people use PayPal every day.

“For years, millions of people have trusted PayPal when they shop online or on their phones. Now we want to bring everything they love about PayPal online to the high street. Simple, secure, and now with PayPal+ it’s more rewarding.”

The outage, which began around 16:00 UTC on October 29, was traced to an “inadvertent configuration change” that disrupted DNS routing and caused widespread latency, timeouts, and authentication failures across multiple systems.

The fallout was immediate and spread wide. Core Microsoft services, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, Minecraft, and Azure-dependent applications, were hit. 

Companies relying on Azure infrastructure, such as Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Starbucks, Costco, Kroger, and Capital One, also reported service disruptions that left customers unable to access websites, make payments, or check in for flights.

In a statement on Azure’s status page, Microsoft confirmed the root cause of the incident:

“Starting at approximately 16:00 UTC on 29 October 2025, customers and Microsoft services leveraging Azure Front Door (AFD) may have experienced latencies, timeouts, and errors. We have confirmed that an inadvertent configuration change was the trigger event for this issue.”

Azure Front Door (AFD), which powers global content delivery and accelerates applications, became the central point of failure. The outage rippled across a long list of Azure services, including App Service, Azure SQL Database, Azure Active Directory B2C, Microsoft Sentinel, Azure Virtual Desktop, Azure Maps, and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management.

By 7:40 PM ET, Microsoft said Azure Front Door had reached “above 98% availability” and that mitigation efforts were ongoing. “We are continuing to work on tail-end recovery for remaining impacted customers and services,” the company added, estimating full recovery by 00:40 UTC on October 30.

Gaming services were also affected. Xbox users experienced connection issues, with many needing to restart their consoles to reconnect. The Xbox Support account later confirmed services were “restored to their pre-incident state.”

Elsewhere, Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines acknowledged that the Azure outage disrupted key operational systems. “We are currently experiencing a disruption to key systems, including our websites,” Alaska Airlines said, urging passengers to visit airport counters for boarding passes.

Retail chains like Starbucks, Costco, and Kroger’s websites and mobile apps were temporarily inaccessible, while some Capital One customers reported difficulty accessing banking services. In the UK, internet provider Community Fibre confirmed that “some customers may have experienced issues due to the Microsoft outage.”

The disruption coincided with Microsoft’s quarterly earnings release, during which even its main website struggled to load properly. While the company managed to restore most services by late evening, the timing of the incident worried investors and analysts about the resilience of global cloud systems.

This outage follows a similar incident just a week earlier involving Amazon Web Services (AWS), which also led to widespread internet disruptions. Analysts warn that such back-to-back failures reveal the fragility of the world’s dependence on a few centralised cloud providers.