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Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

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Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.

That only applies to the US.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#222
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what's not to like? Well, the predatory business model, for one. The reason your credit card company can offer you "better consumer protection" and other benefits is because they count on a percentage of people not paying off their debt in time (and thus making more money out of them). Also, I personally wouldn't want "better consumer protection" to be mediated by a private company. That should just be the default.

In a UK context, the "better consumer protection" comes from the Consumer Credit Act 1974, not the banks goodwill. (Although the time my debit card did get stolen somehow, my bank did refund out of goodwill presmably becuase they didn't want to lose a customer).

You actually get much better payment protection from a debit card than people are generally aware of. In the UK, the difference between a debit card and credit card is actually not very big due to legal protections (although you might have an easier time claiming off your credit card).

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#223
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, when I use my debit card it just goes out of my main account, done, don't have to worry about it. On my credit card I'll have bigger purchases I made some time ago and I'm working towards paying them off - if I put all my monthly purchases there too, I'd lose track of how much of that I need to pay off monthly and how much I've got left on my main account. And yes, it can be easily worked out but I gues…

> And for purchases under £100, credit cards offer no additional protection whatsoever, so for my daily shopping I'd just be making my life more difficult for no reason. They offer better protection against fraudulent charges though? If your card gets skimmed it doesn't matter whether you were paying £5 or £5000.

I don't know in Uk or USA, but in the rest of europe there is no difference at all in protection against fraudulent charges between a credit and a debit card.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#224
post #105

It is mind blowing that in 2021 we have a payment system collecting a fairly big percentage of the economy's output. I don't know for sure, but 2% over revenue could easily be about what the government collects in corporate taxes derived from that revenue.

2% sounds high, something under 1% sounds reasonable for unified network providing reasonably secure payment flow. Dealing with lot of cash isn't really free either. It gets quite complicated and less secure if sums were really to increase.

2-3% sounds reasonable to bootstrap taking into account risk, but the question is why hasn't it gotten lower (and processors seem to want it to go higher) as technology has improved? Probably not enough competition and incentive to make improvements and pass on savings.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

UK here, I use credit card for almost everything: 1. (As everyone says) consumer protection. I can dispute a charge to a CC and am not standing out the cash (unlike debit) 2. Debit transactions don't have any inherent limit. The bank might flag a very large transaction but once a debit transaction is underway it can't be stopped. I had > £10k stolen from my online account via a debit transaction and though the bank m…

Just to address those points.

1) I've been able to dispute payments on my debit cards without any issue, they were always reversed instantly by the bank. Maybe I've been lucky, I don't know. And for the "bank is liable for your purchases" thing - that doesn't apply to anything under £100 either.

2) That is a stupid limitation of UK banks, not debit cards in general. I have a bank account in Poland and for the debit cards with that bank I can set individual limits for internet transactions, terminal payments, CNP(card not present) transactions as well as ATM withdrawals - with separate daily/monthly/temporary limits. Why British banks don't implement this is unfathomable to me.

3) I suppose, I have no comment on this really.

4) yes, but then you need to remember to pay it off and how much exactly, which is a bit of a pain if you have your daily spending mixed in with bigger purchases that you want to pay off over a longer period of time.

5) Again, personal experience - other than 0% interest on purchases, never had a credit card in the UK with any rewards whatsoever.

And yeah, it's not about downsides of CCs - it's just that when I pay for my daily shopping with my debit card it's out of my account, I know how much I have to work with at any given time, done. As I said elsewhere, I can't be arsed to work out it if my spending is spread across multiple accounts and different forms of credit.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.

This happened to me (for clarity: in the UK) and I had to get a credit card and use it for a year.

No idea where the card is now, but the credit systems seemed to become aware of me after that.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#227
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think visa are increasing their fees from 0.3% (EU regs) to 1.5% here.

Huh, so the UK hasn't kept that law when leaving the EU? That's an odd decision!

They have, but it only applies in the same jurisdiction. So it still applies to intra-UK transactions and to intra-EU transactions. But not to transactions between the two.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#228
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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?

I take it they're separate accounts.

You can basically just sign up for an account with Revolut, Monzo, or Starling and use it purely for spending.

Keep your primary account for getting paid, and for covering bills, then load up the second account with play money for the month.

I know a few people who do this.

I just use an AmEx account but it's a little frustrating that you can't set a spending limit on the card.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#229
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.

You don't have to have running shoes to be able to run. I haven't owned a credit card for 15 years and my credit score is just fine.

That's not how it works in the UK though. You need to be having credit in order to build up credit score.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#230
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can't be overcharged, can't go below zero, ...and can't get a mortgage and buy a house because you have no credit score.

That only applies to the US.

Nope, that also applies in the UK.
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