Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 534 posts

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#261

Post by maccard »

gifnamething wrote: post #236
mattowen_uk wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. Bizarrely, never owning a credit card will negatively impact your credit rating.

Expecting someone to lend you 6 figures when you've never displayed any ability to repay 2 is far more bizarre.

A credit rating basically isn't considered for a mortgage in the UK. They will check a report, and maybe request you pay outstanding debts (I was asked to clear my CC balance before completion both times), but unless you have a fraud marker or are bankrupt it won't affect you. Mortgages are secured on the asset, so it's far less risky than a personal loan of 5x less - the bank can seize the asset and force the sale of the home (and that difference in risk is reflected in the difference in borrowing rates).

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#262

Post by simonh »

dustinmoris wrote: post #229
simonh wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, I've taken out loans, had several mortgages, multiple bank accounts, paid all my utility bills. All of that can influence your credit scores.

It is possible some people could have so little credit history that having a card for a while might be beneficial. I don't know enough about the system to be sure, so maybe I was being a bit flippant, for which I apologise.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#263

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

pornel wrote: post #11
barrkel wrote: post #2

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/…

First direct (HSBC) has recently switched from Visa to Mastercard. The switch felt sudden, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was due to negotiation that fell through.

Natwest are also swapping to MasterCard debit once cards expire. I just presumed the issuing bank had negotiated a more favourable interchange rates than using Visa.

(MC taking less of a cut of the final fees then Visa, so the banks getting a higher precentage of the fees then they would have sticking with Visa. Lets say MC gave away 5% of their cut to the banks, keeping 95% of the your slice of the pie when you are processing more pies is more than 100% of your slice of fewer pies if you get what I mean).

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#264

Post by HatchedLake721 »

rkangel wrote: post #222
fredoralive wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

You sure? Section 75 is not equivalent to requesting a chargeback.

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/section-7...

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#265

Post by maccard »

stuaxo wrote: post #220
c16 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side to this is using something like an Amex which offers insurance, points, business lounge access and much more. Set up the card with diret debit (much like your automated payments) and never spend above what you can afford. You now have perks, points, insurance, consumer protection and still zero worries.

It's pretty expensive to have an Amex card, I had one for a bit, but ended up not really using it so the £ they wanted seemed like a rip-off in the end.

There are many amex cards which don't have any fees, they even have a filter for them on their website [0]

https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/credit-cards/all-cards/?i...

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#266

Post by egman_ekki »

gifnamething wrote: post #236
mattowen_uk wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never owned a credit card, don't have the slightest wish to do so. Bizarrely, never owning a credit card will negatively impact your credit rating.

Expecting someone to lend you 6 figures when you've never displayed any ability to repay 2 is far more bizarre.

Maybe you displayed the ability to not go into debt unnecessarily, which could be also a signal of financial ability. Getting into debt just to demonstrate you can pay it off is a bit like having to catch a virus so that the doctor can tell you you're healthy once you're done with it.

But it's true that in the era of negative interest rates, only silly people don't owe money.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#268

Post by maccard »

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.

About 10 years ago a hotel I had prepaid wouldn't take a debit card for a damage deposit, but that's the only time in my life I've been asked for credit instead of debit.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#269

Post by InsomniacL »

Visa

Revenue: US$21 billion (2020)

Net income: US$10 billion (2020)

Amazon

Revenue: $425 billion (2020)

Net income: US$21 billion (2020)

It would seem the duopoly between Visa and Mastercard is very profitable, yet their fee's are constantly rising.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_(company)

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#270

Post by tumetab1 »

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…

Because regulations which goverments supports because they prefer digital transactions to physical money for several reasons. (EU country perspective)

By VISA/ MasterCard contract backed by governments' regulations a merchant in EU can not charge more because he's using a card instead of cash. Of course the transactions costs are paid by the customer, it's just all customers instead of those paying by card.

That's why some cards have charges, to the merchants, of around 2%... because the customer who use that cards does not pay them.

If I, as a customer, when doing an Amazon checkout saw a 2% charge to use VISA I would drop them in a second. Because that's hidden on purpose, I keep using it.

Post reply on HN