341–350 of 534 posts
There's a huge piece of information missing from that article and much of the reporting of Amazon's decision Visa have put up UK-EU interchange fees (as post Brexit they're not covered by the cap) But it affects Amazon because when you buy something from Amazon UK, you're billed by Amazon Luxembourg and Amazon UK then fulfil Amazon's tax avoidance strategy is part of the reason the charge has increased for them. If t…
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.
You are paying for these "perks" and no I don't need insurance when I'm buying an electronic toothbrush from Amazon thank you very much.
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.
But that 2% fee is squeezed out from the processors anyways and flows back to consumers.
It is also virtually cross subsidy from people paying cash/bank transfer to people paying by credit cards.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
There's a huge piece of information missing from that article and much of the reporting of Amazon's decision Visa have put up UK-EU interchange fees (as post Brexit they're not covered by the cap) But it affects Amazon because when you buy something from Amazon UK, you're billed by Amazon Luxembourg and Amazon UK then fulfil Amazon's tax avoidance strategy is part of the reason the charge has increased for them. If t…
There's a huge piece of information missing from that article and much of the reporting of Amazon's decision Visa have put up UK-EU interchange fees (as post Brexit they're not covered by the cap) But it affects Amazon because when you buy something from Amazon UK, you're billed by Amazon Luxembourg and Amazon UK then fulfil Amazon's tax avoidance strategy is part of the reason the charge has increased for them. If t…
Does that mean they just need to set up a billing center in the UK?
There's a huge piece of information missing from that article and much of the reporting of Amazon's decision Visa have put up UK-EU interchange fees (as post Brexit they're not covered by the cap) But it affects Amazon because when you buy something from Amazon UK, you're billed by Amazon Luxembourg and Amazon UK then fulfil Amazon's tax avoidance strategy is part of the reason the charge has increased for them. If t…
Does that mean they just need to set up a billing center in the UK?
Rather interestingly my bank (First Direct) in the UK swapped over from a Visa Debit card to a Mastercard recently - I wonder if perhaps there are things going on behind the scenes that consumers are not currently aware of. Rather annoyingly most of my spending with Amazon is on my Visa credit card - can't quite figure out why they are now more expensive to process than the historically expensive AMEX.
There's a huge piece of information missing from that article and much of the reporting of Amazon's decision Visa have put up UK-EU interchange fees (as post Brexit they're not covered by the cap) But it affects Amazon because when you buy something from Amazon UK, you're billed by Amazon Luxembourg and Amazon UK then fulfil Amazon's tax avoidance strategy is part of the reason the charge has increased for them. If t…
Does that mean they just need to set up a billing center in the UK?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that 2% fee is squeezed out from the processors anyways and flows back to consumers.
I think this is not the case. Actually, it's more like they give you some restricted benefits matching something near the fees incurred. And only if you redeem them. It is also virtually cross subsidy from people paying cash/bank transfer to people paying by credit cards.
And as per my other comment, the customer isn’t necessarily paying the full 2%. If credit card companies became charities and charged 0% would all prices drop by 2%? Of course not.