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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

#451

Post by Isthatablackgsd »

simfree wrote: post #399
ComputerGuru wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Amazon branded credit card is a MasterCard in the UK. So Visa raises its rates to match MC, but AMZ has a special relationship with the latter.

Note that this special relationship only likely applies to transactions that use the Amazon MasterCard on Amazon.com, and MasterCards issued by other companies still impose full rates. Costco ran into this with American Express, though in retrospect the move to Visa seems like a worse move (more non-Costco Visa cards in circulation).

> Costco ran into this with American Express, though in retrospect the move to Visa seems like a worse move (more non-Costco Visa cards in circulation).

Could you expand on it a worse move for Costco? I thought it was great they moved to Visa because majority of Americans does not have Amex for credit card. The only way we can use our Visa card is through debit card only. So by moving to Visa (they have largest cardholders than Amex/Discover in America), Costco gained more consumers so the consumers can use their Visa credit card without resorting to debit card. It helps me a lot because I don't and never have Amex. Amex don't have a lot of retailers coverage (they used to be popular back in the 80s/90s), same for Discover. I recalled Amex have higher transaction fees, I believe higher than Discover, and Amex explicitly disallow passing the fee to the consumers. So made sense retailers prefer Visa/MC because they have lower transaction fees. This is what I remember back in the day when Costco made this announcement.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#452

Post by mdoms »

r00fus wrote: post #440
goodcanadian wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Polls have shown that a majority of "the great British public" now believe Brexit was a mistake, so I don't think it is fair to say they "still have their heads in the sand."

Until the Tories and nationalists that pushed Brexit face consequences, you can still argue the public has their head in the sand.

I'm not British but I follow your politics and with the quality of Labour candidates you guys dredge up it's no wonder people keep voting Tory.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#453

Post by iso1631 »

input_sh wrote: post #79
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?

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…

Your plan might work with a pre-loaded credit card

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#454

Post by iso1631 »

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.

Mine's free, and they pay me cashback every year (which is of course mainly paid by companies like tesco and amazon as part of the fees)

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#455

Post by mattmanser »

mdoms wrote: post #452
r00fus wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until the Tories and nationalists that pushed Brexit face consequences, you can still argue the public has their head in the sand.

I'm not British but I follow your politics and with the quality of Labour candidates you guys dredge up it's no wonder people keep voting Tory.

It's a first past the post system. Which results in a two party duopoly and voting for anyone else can actively harm your interests.

So we don't actually have a choice, our politics are as rigged as American politics. A small cabal pick the two PM choices, and we have to pick between bad or worse.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#456

Post by hash9 »

wayoutthere wrote: post #444
throwaway2037 wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero trolling here. You wrote: > My rule of thumb is about 500M. (Google says 445M.) Where is the other 500M?

Was doing it off the top of my head; was off on the exact number but the sentiment holds. The main benefit of the UK has been that it was an English-speaking intermediary for US companies. The Netherlands and Germany are filling that role as basically every white collar worker speaks fluent English. The main power lever the UK has at this point on the global stage is the fact that its banks orchestrate and facilitate…

> the EU ... has nearly a billion people

More like under half billion (~447.0 million).

>The UK is basically Mexico now

Except it has a much bigger more advanced economy and a ton of other differences but carry on with the hyperbole.

> The Netherlands and Germany are filling that role ...

Just recently Royal Dutch Shell just switched headquarters to UK from NL, maybe there are some advantages then.

> Was doing it off the top of my head

Any more facts you want to come up with from the top of your head? I think I'll just disregard the rest of your facts then.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#457

Post by fragmede »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #377
rexreed wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More detail here: https://news.sky.com/story/visa-to-hike-interchange-fees-for... But a curious note from that article: "The move to increase interchange fees will bring it into line with MasterCard, its rival payments group, which announced a similar move in January." So why is Amazon restricting customers with Visa and not MasterCard? Can't be the UK-EU Post-Brexit policy alone.

The Amazon branded credit card is a MasterCard in the UK. So Visa raises its rates to match MC, but AMZ has a special relationship with the latter.

special, UK-based relationship, sounds like, which then is still neatly explained as a consequence to brexit - Amazon UK Visa = expensive EU charge, Amazon UK MC = UK charge.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#458

Post by zdragnar »

Symbiote wrote: post #447
zdragnar wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brexit may not be helping matters, but it certainly isn't responsible for those shortages. Every western country is facing the same issues. Schools near me in (not UK) are struggling to feed students lunch because the companies they had contracted to deliver their food dont have enough drivers. One company a state over just cancelled their contract with nearly 60 rural schools because they simply aren't able to deliv…

It helps if you say which country you're referring to. Maybe the USA? i.e. [1]. As far as I've heard, the EU doesn't have these problems. It's only the UK. (I can't speak all the languages, but I asked friends from Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy if they'd seen reports of shortages in supermarkets and restaurants, but none have.) The American problem looks fixable with vaccination, testing etc. A lot of d…

You should ask more people, the driver shortage in various EU countries has been pretty widely reported.

For example, https://www.ft.com/content/e8ca2a08-308c-4324-8ed2-d788b074a...

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#459

Post by throwaway2037 »

wayoutthere wrote: post #444
throwaway2037 wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zero trolling here. You wrote: > My rule of thumb is about 500M. (Google says 445M.) Where is the other 500M?

Was doing it off the top of my head; was off on the exact number but the sentiment holds. The main benefit of the UK has been that it was an English-speaking intermediary for US companies. The Netherlands and Germany are filling that role as basically every white collar worker speaks fluent English. The main power lever the UK has at this point on the global stage is the fact that its banks orchestrate and facilitate…

My reply is less harsh/dismissive than @hash9. Your last paragraph is powerful. I do think sometimes that I seriously underestimate the financial advantage that UK gains by having "selectively weak financial regulation" (my term). They are a like a Big Singapore, that pretends to be very well regulated, but looks the other way when autocrats want to buy 20M pound flats in Central London.

I expect they will try to extend their advantage in the coming years by using "selective legislation" to encourage multinational corporations to re-home to the UK. See: Unilever and Shell. This is only the beginning in my view.

Re: Amazon to stop accepting UK Visa credit cards

#460

Post by flumpcakes »

wdb wrote: post #275
flumpcakes wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nationwide uses Visa for their credit cards.

Ah the banks that didn't let me open a bank account when I moved to the UK :)

Technically they are not a bank. They are a building society, but they are effectively a "bank" and have a few million customers.
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