Update, 11:36 PM, Saturday, October 14, 2017: MetroCard vending machines are accepting debit and credit card purchases again.

For the second time in a week, have cash handy if you are planning on riding transit Saturday.

Due to system maintenance, the MTA says that riders cannot make debit and credit card purchases at MetroCard vending machines right now. This affects anyone planning to take the bus, subway, or PATH system.

The MTA says customers who do not have cash can enter for free at stations that have staff in the booths.

It is not clear when the system-wide problem, which appeared to begin around 2 p.m., will be repaired.

An MTA spokesperson originally said around 3:40 p.m. that maintenance was completed, but the spokesperson later said the issue will not be fully remedied until testing is done.

This is at least the second time that commuters have experienced problems purchasing fares using their cards.

A similar issue arose Tuesday because of overnight upgrades to machines. Officials said that issue was quickly resolved, but some people reported that when they attempted to use their cards, they were declined but their accounts were charged anyway. Some people said they were billed for each attempt.

Saturday, NY1 spoke to some customers who said they paid with cash and still ran into problems.

"They said that it passed and then when we tried to go in there, the card didn't have any cash in there, and in her account it says she paid $5," one straphanger said.

"It let the coins out after a certain point — it wasn't letting me put back any coins — so I ejected it to get my coins back, but it didn't give me back my MetroCard," another transit rider said.

It is unclear what is causing the vending machine issues and if it is related to the Tuesday outage.

Vending machines at the Times Square-42 St. subway station began accepting only coins sometime before 8 p.m., but it is unknown if that is an anomaly.