I've recieved an email from Amazon.co.uk about it as well. Although I can only go by the subject "Visa credit cards will not be accepted, starting 19 Jan, 2022". My email preferences on Amazon are set to text only, and the text only email has no useful content beyond my name and generic headers / footers.
When did you receive it?
09:15 GMT. Unlike what the report says, I haven't ordered anything from Amazon in the past week or so I don't think it's directly tied to a super recent purchase (although I probably used a Visa Credit card for whatever it was).
I've just found another link that isn't paywalled: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-stop... This says that only Visa credit cards will be blocked, not Visa debit cards. I have a speculative guess that it might not just be about the merchant cost... It does seem that Visa offers more customer protection than Mastercard from what I can tell, so perhaps too many customers have got Visa involved fo…
If I had to guess this is fall out from the rate increase Visa put in place after Brexit. Now that they are no longer restricted by pro-consumer caps they hiked the rates from 0.3% to 1.5% on credit card payments: https://www.ft.com/content/4820b619-4d35-4c6a-8523-fc685c047...
There might be something going on with Visa in the UK. I've noticed that all the bank accounts I've had that used Visa for debit cards for many years all seem to have switched to Mastercard recently. Presumably they wouldn't overcome this much inertia unless there was a substantial financial incentive. If card issuers are finding that their costs are too high, chances are payment processors are as well.
I think visa are increasing their fees from 0.3% (EU regs) to 1.5% here.
But that EU limit is for debit cards right? And Amazon is excluding the credit cards while still accepting visa debit.
Has anyone successfully nationalised/regulated into sanity this business? It's 2021, buying stuff should involve neither precious metals nor weird faceless financial cooperatives owned by private banks.
Denmark has a standardized national debit card. Physical stores are not allowed to charge a fee, but online stores are (typically DKK1.50/$0.25). Works great, but obviously only for stores in Denmark. They are almost always combined with a Visa debit card on the same card for a yearly fee (typically DKK150/$25).
Really? Nice. There is no need to have Visa et al. take a 1-3% tax on everything.
Quite the opposite in the UK, at least over the last 10 years or so. 99% of debit cards are Visa, and most people buying stuff on Amazon would be using a debit card, folks only really use credit cards for large purchases and things like travel, here. Even when it comes to credit cards, I would say Mastercard has like a large chunk - like 80% in terms of institutions (but who knows in terms of actual customers), I wou…
> most people buying stuff on Amazon would be using a debit card, folks only really use credit cards for large purchases Huh? I'm in the UK, have been an Amazon customer for over 20 years and have always used a credit card for everything. I didn't even know you could use a debit card, and can't see any reason you'd want to. Paid off in full every month, better consumer protection, what's not to like?
You must be an actual anomaly, like yeah, what you are saying makes sense, but you are the only person I've ever heard about who does that here in UK. Everyone I know, me included, just uses debit cards for purchases everywhere including Amazon. I have a credit card but I very very very rarely use it for anything.
I cannot believe that Visa transaction overhead would be higher than Amex - there's something going on behind the scenes here. I don't think this is the end of it either, it smells like a negotiation threat. Visa have a larger market share overall (80%, including debit cards [1]) but Mastercard leads in credit cards. Amex has always been fairly niche because it's not accepted everywhere. [1] https://www.statista.com/…
Amazon Australia has started charging 0.5% for Visa cards. In Australia a merchant can charge more for payment by credit card but only up to the actual extra cost they incur.
This practise is illegal in the UK and that's probably why they decided to this instead
Has anyone successfully nationalised/regulated into sanity this business? It's 2021, buying stuff should involve neither precious metals nor weird faceless financial cooperatives owned by private banks.
Pretty much all Australian & New Zealand cards use a system called EFTPOS[1] in addition to Visa / MasterCard credit since the 80s. Fees are virtually nil, and payments are instant. They cannot be used for online purchases though, I believe.
> most people buying stuff on Amazon would be using a debit card, folks only really use credit cards for large purchases Huh? I'm in the UK, have been an Amazon customer for over 20 years and have always used a credit card for everything. I didn't even know you could use a debit card, and can't see any reason you'd want to. Paid off in full every month, better consumer protection, what's not to like?
Here's why: two debit cards, one for receiving money, one for spending money. Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one once a month with a fixed amount you expect to spend in a month. Nothing to pay off, you're spending your own money, can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, if someone leaks your spending card they can't touch the majority of your money, no scummy business practices. Never owned a credit…
>>one for receiving money,
What do you mean debit card for receiving money? In what sense?
>> Automated payment from the 1st one to the 2nd one
Again, I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that. Payment from a debit card to a debit card? What?
Amazon Australia has started charging 0.5% for Visa cards. In Australia a merchant can charge more for payment by credit card but only up to the actual extra cost they incur.
This practise is illegal in the UK and that's probably why they decided to this instead
It's illegal everywhere in the EU as well. If a merchant accepts debit/credit cards then they are not allowed to charge extra for using them.
There might be something going on with Visa in the UK. I've noticed that all the bank accounts I've had that used Visa for debit cards for many years all seem to have switched to Mastercard recently. Presumably they wouldn't overcome this much inertia unless there was a substantial financial incentive. If card issuers are finding that their costs are too high, chances are payment processors are as well.
I think visa are increasing their fees from 0.3% (EU regs) to 1.5% here.
I think both Visa and Mastercard are increasing their fees like that, but only for payments between the UK and EU (and pretty much simultaneously too - aren't duopolies great?)