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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

#401

Post by nicky0 »

wayoutthere wrote: post #393
stronglikedan wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path to the better destination is sometimes the bumpier path.

I don’t know what power or leverage a country of 65 million thinks it has over the world. Companies / trading partners can simply ignore the UK now with few consequences. The UK has been on a long, slow decline of global relevance since the Victorian era. I don’t know why that would stop with Brexit.

The point is it's now just another country on an equal footing with the rest. Unlike the EU members which have to ask the Commission for permission to scratch their ass.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#402

Post by belltaco »

wayoutthere wrote: post #393
stronglikedan wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path to the better destination is sometimes the bumpier path.

I don’t know what power or leverage a country of 65 million thinks it has over the world. Companies / trading partners can simply ignore the UK now with few consequences. The UK has been on a long, slow decline of global relevance since the Victorian era. I don’t know why that would stop with Brexit.

It won't stop, it will accelerate. UK had special deals in the EU plus outsized power.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#403

Post by wayoutthere »

nicky0 wrote: post #401
wayoutthere wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what power or leverage a country of 65 million thinks it has over the world. Companies / trading partners can simply ignore the UK now with few consequences. The UK has been on a long, slow decline of global relevance since the Victorian era. I don’t know why that would stop with Brexit.

The point is it's now just another country on an equal footing with the rest. Unlike the EU members which have to ask the Commission for permission to scratch their ass.

But they’re not on equal footing with the global superpowers — the EU has significant leverage by representing nearly a billion people. The UK had an outsized voice in EU politics, where now it’s just a small fish in an ocean of sharks.

The UK is basically Mexico now. You saw how well their trade negotiations with the EU went; expect the US and China to walk all over them too.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#405

Post by drstewart »

kuschku wrote: post #251
drstewart wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Danes have to pay a fee in order to get payment cards? I thought consumer protection was big there.

Why? There's a real cost associated with running the cards. In the US, that's paid by selling your data, by the percentages the merchants pay (which in turn is paid by everyone, even those customers paying cash) and by the extreme fees for not paying your bill on time. If all these consumer-unfriendly practices are banned, you see the real cost of such cards. Same happens for many customers in Germany: pay 10€/month…

Funny how Europeans consider anything that they have to pay for a "real cost" that's justified.

What are your thoughts on ATM fees? Is there a "real cost" to maintaining ATM fees? Should it be passed to the consumer? Or is it an unfriendly consumer practice that Europe has rightfully "banned" (aka not common)? It seems to me they're just charging you another way by selling your data or whatever!

How much do Europeans pay for Whatsapp, by the way?

Also, can you share the European law that bans merchants paying a percentage for financial transactions to the payment processor? I'm unfamiliar with it, and am also curious to understand how Visa and Mastercard exist at all in Europe given the banning of this consumer-unfriendly practice.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#406

Post by Dah00n »

omar_alt wrote: post #340

Having a Mastercard and an Amex can be useful if you are dealing with some payment gateways that throw a fit at visa during checkout (Scottish whisky sites on Stripe payment gateways is a recurring theme). However this is completely impractical for many people especially those on low incomes who now consider Amazon a utility.

Maybe the bank could offer a 2-in-1 card. Most Danish VISA cards can be used as both a VISA or a national payment card (which is without transaction fee by law). Most shops offer payment via both.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#407

Post by vel0city »

gambiting wrote: post #344
lmm wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Yep. I rang and said there's a payment I don't recognize and that I didn't make, for Uber in Vietnam. The agent was like "yep, looks fraudulent, we'll cancel it right now and are sending a new card straight away". Money was back by the time I disconnected from the call. Second time it was someone buying stuff on PSN with my card, exact same situation - had the money back instantly.

A friend of mine had her debit card skimmed years ago. The skimmer used it in the area around town, going to restaurants and buying gas in the area. When she noticed the fraudulent charges (transaction declined) she contacted her bank. It took a week for most of her charges to be investigated and reversed, in the mean time she had absolutely no cash.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#408

Post by ArgyleSound »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #303
kall wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

It still applies in the UK, just not between UK-EU transactions because those are cross border now

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#409

Post by [deleted] »

youngtaff wrote: post #337

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…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#410

Post by ricardobayes »

em10fan wrote: post #12
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/…

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…

Vanquis also for immigrants and people fresh to the UK. As an EU national I remember being the unbanked pariah who had to pitch around 20 high street banks to open an account. Then to open a business account was even harder, actually similar difficulty to getting an investment. This was way before Revolut or Transferwise, it's a non-issue now.
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