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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

#301

Post by bb101 »

billyruffian wrote: post #235
dazc wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Status symbol?

I had my wallet nicked in Padstow on the last day of a trip there and was just about take the 3.5 hour drive home. Problem was I didn't have enough fuel to make it. My CC providers took ages to even answer the phone and cancel the cards. Amex dealt with it a just a few mins, arranged to courier a replacement card to me by the next day and authorised a fuelling stop for me on my way home. I'll never be without one, ev…

I had a similar experience in Washington. Amex had an international courier deliver a new card within days. In the UK, the three companies that won't lose my custom (unless things go very downhill) are Amex, NFU Mutual and firstdirect. In my dealings with each, their staff come across as competent and efficient, with a get-stuff-done attitude and evidently empowered to make their own decisions.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#302

Post by rexreed »

Is it possible to feel sorry for neither of these parties? Visa sucks for raising interchange rates and Amazon sucks for blocking customers who have those cards. The customer ends up suffering since Visa will still make their revenues and Amazon doesn't care since customers will find a means to pay.

All these increasing fees definitely is a sign of pending high inflation world-wide, however. We know who stands to lose from not only the higher fees but also inflation, the typical consumer.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#303

Post by toomuchtodo »

kall wrote: post #240
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…

"We“ don‘t. In the EU, the base fee is capped at 0.2% (debit) and 0.3% (credit) which sounds reasonable for what they provide.

Which doesn’t apply in the UK post Brexit, hence this situation. The UK could cram down interchange fees (such that the EU had) with their own regulation if they don’t want merchants banning rent seeking payment networks.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#304

Post by Symbiote »

jl6 wrote: post #129
em10fan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Here's some data: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/cards/ca... £16.9bn on credit, £61bn on debit. I suspect credit card spending is much more popular than you are suggesting due to consumer credit act protections and cashback offers.

A huge number of replies arguing from personal experience, while the single comment providing data from a primary source is ignored.

Come on, Hacker News. You are supposed to be better than this — repeated discussions with the same "but in Europe" "I've do X so Y doesn't happen" comments is why I stopped reading Slashdot.

I've downvoted several anecdotes in this discussion. They contribute nothing to the discussion.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#305

Post by searchableguy »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #5

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.

India has rupay as an alternative to visa and mastercard.

https://www.rupay.co.in/

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#306

Post by alecco »

kall wrote: post #240
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…

"We“ don‘t. In the EU, the base fee is capped at 0.2% (debit) and 0.3% (credit) which sounds reasonable for what they provide.

Doesn't translate to real life: "1.45% + € 0.05 per transaction"

https://www.mypos.eu/en/pricing-and-fees

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#307

Post by mbg721 »

mattowen_uk wrote: post #159
input_sh wrote: post #79

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…

> 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.

The way this works in the US is nuts. I had to get a parent to co-sign the loan for my first car (or else they wouldn't lend me money at any rate), but then I spent a year paying a monthly fee to borrow my own money with a "secured credit card" and instantly I'm good for 40 grand, apparently.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#308

Post by nixass »

maccard wrote: post #265
stuaxo wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Amex is terrible card in EU. High fees, many places rejecting it, I see no real reason why to use Amex over Visa or Master/Maestro

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#309

Post by missedthecue »

5754797 wrote: post #284
InsomniacL wrote: post #269

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)

So Amazon should just buy visa and be done with it.

Visa is a $457B company

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#310

Post by lmm »

gambiting wrote: post #211
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 never understood this point - my debit card has been charged fraudulently couple of times, all it always took was a quick call to Barclays, 2 minutes on the phone with the agent and the charges were reversed and the card cancelled. What exactly can a credit card do better than this?

You called and the money was available for you to spend within 2 minutes? When it happened to me I had to go in and fill out a form and wait about a month (not easy on a student budget).
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