Amazon Not Taking Visa Credit Cards From Jan 19th 2022

MobileSaver

ih8modem said:

my wife has a link offering her £20 if she updates now,  where my email only says "Update your account now"-

It's genuine; I've just had the same offer and now have a £20 promotional credit in my account.

I also think this could be sabre rattling by Amazon so I'd encourage anyone who can take advantage of the £20 offer to do so sooner rather than later.

While some people will leave Amazon, I suspect most people will simply use a Visa Debit card if they do not have a Mastercard Credit card as Amazon is just so convenient and competitive on price. Visa on the other hand will lose huge sums on processing fees so I suspect they'll be back to the negotiating table before the end of the year.

Doshwaster

So it seems your options are
1) Switch to a Visa debit card
2) Switch to a MC credit card
3) Switch to a Amex credit card
4) Wait to see what happens

I'm sure it's a pure coincidence that the Amazon branded credit card is run on the Mastercard network...

bilies123

IIRC it was reported somewhere earlier this year that Visa and Mastercard were both increasing their UK-EU transaction fees to 1.5% from ~0.2%
Since Amazon base itself in the EU, it'll be hit by these charges.
As for why they're only targeting Visa customers, I can only assume it's a negotiating tactic to try and get a better rate out of them.

emmajones1976

Reminds me of when Costco only used to accept Amex credit cards and no others.....funnily enough at the time you could get a Costco-branded Amex.

ArJay_2

matrim said:

I think Amazon are being total idiots about this. Not about the visa charges (that's up to them and I have visa debit cards to use anyway). They emailed this message to me along with lots of links to change card information which just screams 'PHISHING ATTACK' to me . What's the betting the spammers start sending out mails with the same but different sites to log into.

What Amazon should do is send the email but say 'please log into your amazon account and change any cards to avoid delays' and not 'click here to change details'. No wonder hacks occur everywhere.. 

Totally agree with your phishing comment - very poorly done by Amazon! I'm surprised,

LondonSouth556

Who are Amazon trying to fool?

Stuff like this should really be illegal. If you can't accept one major credit card, you can't accept any. We are not in the days anymore where online payments not being possible is a small thing. 

daithecrane

Yes. First reaction was that it was a scam. But it is from Amazon. My concern is that other organisations are going to follow suit and stop accepting Visa cards. But, if so, Visa could go out of business if not competitive with Mastercard. Fortunately, I have been offered a credit card from my bank. Perhaps Barclaycard will no migrate to Mastercard?? I don't think this is the end of the matter.

emmajones1976

LondonSouth556 said:

Who are Amazon trying to fool?

Stuff like this should really be illegal. If you can't accept one major credit card, you can't accept any. 

There are countless companies out there that still wont accept AMEX, this is no different.

LondonSouth556

emmajones1976 said:

LondonSouth556 said:

Who are Amazon trying to fool?

Stuff like this should really be illegal. If you can't accept one major credit card, you can't accept any. 

There are countless companies out there that still wont accept AMEX, this is no different.

If a company is of a certain size, they should be required by law to accept widespread payment methods. 

LondonSouth556

daithecrane said:

Yes. First reaction was that it was a scam. But it is from Amazon. My concern is that other organisations are going to follow suit and stop accepting Visa cards. But, if so, Visa could go out of business if not competitive with Mastercard. Fortunately, I have been offered a credit card from my bank. Perhaps Barclaycard will no migrate to Mastercard?? I don't think this is the end of the matter.

Major UK banks have been moving away from Visa in the last year. Are Visa really charging significantly more than Mastercard I wonder or is there something else going on.