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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

#241

Post by Denvercoder9 »

azalemeth wrote: post #110

I really don't get why we accept this de-facto tax on the world economy by US companies. Amex, Visa and Mastercard are all based in the US, and all charge a (nowadays) non-negotiable fee on selling anything. Cash has many problems, and clearly won't work for online purchases, but at least small business owners could pay their employees "out of the till" at the end of the week, bypassing bank transaction fees and a fa…

It's a problem of regulation. E.g. in my home country, the Netherlands, practically everyone uses a Maestro or V Pay card issued by Mastercard or Visa, but card fees are very reasonable: € 0.0082 + 0,010% (for domestic transactions). The bank charges a much higher fee, but total fees still come out to less € 0.05. That's much cheaper than handling cash is.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#242

Post by ChrisRR »

fredoralive wrote: post #41
Kiro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29250661 is saying the opposite so what is it?

Presumably confusion between debit (where Visa is common) and credit (where it isn't).

HSBC and barclaycard are both Visa credit cards. Not sure about the rest

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#243

Post by uzakov »

pishpash wrote: post #155
blowski wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see some stats on that. My own experience is much closer to that of the OP.

Amex has gone the lower-fee route on some cards in recent years. Visa, with Visa Signature, may be going the other way.

AMEX now has fee-free cards, which afaik still offer cashback and offers

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#244

Post by kuschku »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #144
ericyan wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the catch is "if a merchant accepts..." I live in the Netherlands and biggest supermarket chain here, Albert Heijn, is strictly Mastro-only. This is not a problem for the locals, but you will find angry reviews left by tourists on pretty much every ah branch in Amsterdam on Google Maps.

That doesn't make sense with 0.3% EU costs.

It does make sense because Girocard and some variations of Maestro only charge 0.125%

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#245

Post by cameronh90 »

yulaow wrote: post #223
lmm wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's no difference with fraudulent charges in the UK, as far as I'm aware, but when you buy a product or service on credit, we have a law saying the credit provider and retailer are both liable.

This means for example if you buy a flight and the airline goes out of business, your credit card provider will need to refund you. Also if goods are faulty, you now have two possibilities to get your money back - and the credit card companies are usually more amenable.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#246

Post by numair »

I would be interested to know if this has something to do with premium interchange. If it does, Amazon has basically just declared war on a bunch of fintechs’ no-/low-fee business models, where you get a ton of services and they get your interchange revenue. It’ll be interesting to see how that war plays out, if that’s what’s happened.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#247

Post by cameronh90 »

gambiting wrote: post #145
throwaway287391 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a credit card but I very very very rarely use it for anything. But why? The credit card is strictly better isn't it? I thought the main reason people used debit cards was that they got one automatically with their checking account and just never bothered to apply for a CC, but that's not the issue for you.

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…

Nowadays with open banking, apps are starting to be able to aggregate all your accounts and credit cards into a single pane of glass. It isn't perfect yet, but it's getting there.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#248

Post by londons_explore »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #102
worble wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, this is a real win for consumers now that a large proportion of them are locked out from using their credit cards on Amazon.

Consumers can also strongarm Amazon. If everyone using Visa credit cards stop buying on Amazon starting 19th January, Amazon will probably budge. But since everyone has a debit card Amazon must be betting that if they do stop accepting Visa credit cards then customers will just shrug and switch card because they really, really need that stuff now.

You underestimate what proportion of people have $3.50 as their current account balance and need the 'credit' ability of a credit card...

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#249

Post by IdoRA »

azalemeth wrote: post #110

I really don't get why we accept this de-facto tax on the world economy by US companies. Amex, Visa and Mastercard are all based in the US, and all charge a (nowadays) non-negotiable fee on selling anything. Cash has many problems, and clearly won't work for online purchases, but at least small business owners could pay their employees "out of the till" at the end of the week, bypassing bank transaction fees and a fa…

Cash is not free to handle. Considering the whole “cash lifecycle”: shrinkage, cost of secure transport to the bank, &c., costs can be up to 8% for some industry sectors.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#250

Post by stevesimmons »

cameronh90 wrote: post #238
mrec wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

"I didn't even know you could use a debit card," Is there ever a situation that you can use a credit card but not a debit card? There are occasionally places that only accept debit cards, but I think the only time I've had a debit card refused was when hiring a car.

The reason for that is the car rental company does a "pre-auth" that ties up some of your credit limit (reduces your "open to buy" amount), in case you damage the car or don't return it with a full tank of petrol.

Hotels will sometimes do the same for a room night plus potential minibar charges.

The pre-auth gets released when you make the payment at the end of the car rental period.

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