Amazon Not Taking Visa Credit Cards From Jan 19th 2022

Sandtree

Grumpy_chap said:

deannagone said:

"Due to the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions, starting 19 Jan, 2022, we will no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK. Please change your default payment method, or add and use an eligible payment method as default now. Eligible payment methods include: debit cards (including Visa debit cards), non-Visa credit cards like Mastercard, Amex, and EuroCard, or any Visa credit card issued outside the UK."

I wonder whether any of this is a public negotiation strategy to secure some incentive from Visa.
Whatever the fees are for Visa, I cannot imagine they are higher than Amex (which many places do not accept because of the fees levied).
I doubt we'll ever find the truth, but plenty of time for that withdrawal of accepting Visa to simply silently fall away and we'll all forget.

It won't affect me as I can't get a Visa card anyway, only Mastercard will have me.

If AmEx were a different type of company you'd imagine the Marketing department getting fairly excited right now

AmEx used to be a pain to accept and have high fees but a notable part of the former dropped away some time ago and fees are now much more proportional especially if you compare to the likes of Mastercard World or Visa Infinite. Unfortunately removing the urban myth is much harder.

Certainly in London AmEx is widely accepted other than in traditional cornershops, even market stalls and food trucks tends to accept it these days because they use solutions like Zettle which inc AmEx and all credit cards attract the same fees.

The only time I've been involved in card payment negotiations AmEx fees were 0.05% more than standard fees for Visa and Mastercard and that was before the interchange fees were capped.

sheramber

RBS  are changing their debit cards to Mastercard.

4justice2

Not just issues in the UK, Amazon have introduced a 0.5% surcharge on Visa Credit Cards on their Singapore site. Presumably, UK consumer law prevents this......

LaHostessAvecLaMostess

emmajones1976 said:

Seems this is all down to the UK leaving the EU so there is no longer a cap on merchant fees, so Visa have chose to raise them.

Another tangible Brexit benefit eh?

It wasn't a tangible benefit when we were in the EU anyway.  Any savings clearly got eaten up by everyone else in the chain before it got to the consumer.

It's a bit rich for people to suddenly start claiming prices will need to go up now the fees have gone up when they didn't go down when the fees went down in the first place (although I fully expect that to happen.)

COLIN_in_NOTTS

Although this Amazon issue specifies credit card payments, it seems something has been going on for a while with VISA.

Already there are many outlets that will not accept American Express, probably for the same reason.

Recently, I have had 2 banks that have switched their debit cards from VISA to MASTERCARD. Never really thought about it before.

Grumpy_chap

tronator said:

Will my Curve card still work even if I use a Visa card behind it? I guess yes as it's a Mastercard and Amazon won't know that it will come out of the Visa card at the end.  But who pays the difference in the fees? Curve?

I have a Curve card, but how the business model works (for the free cards at least) is a mystery.

AIUI, Curve transactions only attract the debit card fee at the merchant but then incur the credit card fee at the card.  That would mean every transaction making a loss.  On top of which, there are offers (likely retailer funded) plus incentives (refer-a-friend etc) that Curve have to finance somehow.  I have also had in the past good offers for Curve at Amazon.

There must be something more complex than my understanding as Curve can't exist making a loss on every transaction.

LaHostessAvecLaMostess

COLIN_in_NOTTS said:

Although this Amazon issue specifies credit card payments, it seems something has been going on for a while with VISA.

Already there are many outlets that will not accept American Express, probably for the same reason.

Recently, I have had 2 banks that have switched their debit cards from VISA to MASTERCARD. Never really thought about it before.

Banks will have done it because it nets them more money in transaction fees.

donnac2558

sheramber said:

RBS  are changing their debit cards to Mastercard.

Santander already has.

Natty68

Well I tried to actually get one of their Mastercards so I don't have to worry about my visa credit card.

And guess what I was turned  down. Had no trouble with the visa card previously but New Day won't have anything to do with me for MasterCard.

Shakin_Steve

MobileSaver said:

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.

I changed my card this morning but no £20 credit. I asked for a call back and the csa didn't seem to know anything about it. I'll wait and see.