WASHINGTON — Metro riders can use credit and debit cards again after a malfunction forced frustrated riders to pay with cash for about two hours Monday.

An equipment malfunction caused the Metro fare vendors to not accept credit or debit cards Monday. The outage affected online fare purchases as well.

The issue began at about 2:30 p.m. and was resolved around 4:30 p.m.

During the outage, riders were advised to use cash to load cards — a move that frustrated D.C. commuter, Carolyn Landis,

“I don’t have any money; I guess I can’t ride the Metro,” she said.

The outage comes weeks after Metro switched to only using SmarTrip cards.

Metro said some charges of less than $20 went through during the outage.

WTOP’s Sarah Beth Hensley and Mike Murillo contributed to this report.