Amazon no longer accepting Visa credit cards from January 2022 - WTF?

[peanuts87]

AIBU to think this is madness? They're going to inconvenience so many of their customers. Still, it's good incentive to stop using Amazon I suppose!

www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-stop-accepting-visa-credit-cards-issued-uk-bloomberg-news-2021-11-17/

Thank o be honest I think Visa will back down. And if they don’t that some of the banks will start offering their customers Mastercards instead of Visas.

I think we’ve got an old Mastercard we don’t use anymore somewhere. If we don’t then I’ll pop some money on Amazon prepaid middle of January and then try to get a Mastercard then. I’m not fussing until I known it’s happening for sure.

It’s all a bit Clash if the Titans: or two Godzilla’s battling it out, one the Visa symbol and the other the Amazon logo, like the old chewits advert. Tiresome.

@MatildaIThink

If you are desperate to use a credit card then use a Mastercard or Amex card, or just use a debit card like the majority of people do.

Erm no. You don’t get any consumer protection using a debit card.

It looks like another benefit of Brexit
www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37706/visa-hikes-uk-eu-online-interchange-fees-faces-us-investigation-into-debit-card-practices

Visa is set to take advantage of Brexit to raise interchange fees on cross-border transactions between the UK and EU, according to the Financial Times. The move comes as the payments giant faces an investigation by the US Justice Department over possible anticompetitive practices in debit card transaction routing.

Prior to Brexit, UK merchants and card holders benefitted from a 0.3% cap on credit card interchange fees imposed by the European Commission.

But with the country withdrawing from Europe, from October Visa will increase the fees for online and over-the-phone purchases to 1.5%, says the FT, citing sources. The fee for debit card payments is also set to rise from 0.2% to 1.15%.

The rise mirrors a move already announced by Mastercard, which prompted widespread anger, with MP Kevin Hollinrake, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Fair Business Banking, saying it "smacks of opportunism".

Visa is also increasing scheme fees on UK-EU transactions from July 2022, as well as charging more for domestic payments using British company credit cards from April 2022, says the FT.

[quote peanuts87]AIBU to think this is madness? They're going to inconvenience so many of their customers. Still, it's good incentive to stop using Amazon I suppose!

www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-stop-accepting-visa-credit-cards-issued-uk-bloomberg-news-2021-11-17/[/quote]
It's only credit cards, not debit cards, so I don't see the problem?

NadiaVulvokov
...I’ll pop some money on Amazon prepaid middle of January and then try to get a Mastercard then. I’m not fussing until I known it’s happening for sure.

Might be worth doing it sooner. I've just been accepted for an Amazon Mastercard, the card suppliers have put £500 credit in my Amazon account to use till the card comes through + £40 Amazon gift voucher.

So Visa is taking advantage of the relaxation in rules from Brexit and raising fees.

Small companies do not have the might to object. The government can’t object, as it is not a monopoly. It is left to very big retailers to keep Visa in check.

Amazon are doing this - even though there will be some that blame them….coz they’re Amazon and therefore must be in the wrong!

I think we should all applaud Amazon for this, even though we may not like all their practices. If they can get Visa to back down, others can piggyback on it. If card charges go up, prices will!

RTT if you don't understand why debit cards are not as good as credit cards for online shopping

If the BBC says it's nothing to do with Brexshit, you can bet your life it is everything to do with Brexshit...

You get debit card protection through the Chargeback scheme for purchases made using all UK debit cards, including:

Visa and Visa Electron cards
MasterCard debit cards
Maestro debit cards

www.money.co.uk/current-accounts/is-debit-card-protection-the-same-as-for-credit-cards.htm

"so I don't see the problem?" because there are advantages to using a credit card and some risks to using debit.

Any damage because a credit card was used fraudulently is limited and typically is sorted out quickly with no loss.

LemonKitten
It's only credit cards, not debit cards, so I don't see the problem?

If you read the thread you'll see that PP's have explained what the problem is.

To be clear it would probably get sorted out with a debit card too, but you don't want your main account compromised in the meantime.

@bordermidgebite

RTT if you don't understand why debit cards are not as good as credit cards for online shopping

It's all well and good if you can have a cc to say that debit cards are no good, but some people don't have that choice. I'm one of them. I don't have the choice of using a cc to buy online. I'm not that fortunate to be able to look down my nose at other people and sneer at their lack of choice.

thanks to those who reminded me that NatWest had moved to MC from Visa.

I have two CCs and use one for online only and the other for F2F purchases - so I have a better handle on what is going out and where. I'll just have to swap over which one is used, a bit of a pain as I know the Visa details off by heart!

It just means that I won't buy any "big ticket" items off Amazon any more.
I think it's very damaging for independent sellers that use Amazon as a Marketplace.

For once Amazon is on the side of the consumer. People should be applauding.

Only a company the size of Amazon can take on Visa.

Thank you Amazon (for once).

[quote LemonKitten]You get debit card protection through the Chargeback scheme for purchases made using all UK debit cards, including:

Visa and Visa Electron cards
MasterCard debit cards
Maestro debit cards

www.money.co.uk/current-accounts/is-debit-card-protection-the-same-as-for-credit-cards.htm[/quote]
But that's not the same as section 75 protection you get with credit cards.

When monarch went bust 2 days before we were due to fly with them, I simply bought new flights for ££££ because short notice and there were thousands of people in the same position as us pushing up demand and I then got the cost of the original lost flights and the extra cost of the new flights over the original price refunded from the credit card that I'd used to pay for the first ones as a consequential loss. You don't get that with chargeback.

[quote YesNoWhoCares]@Chimley, I didn't get the £20 that others seemed to get, computer said no but did get the £10 one which I found again, I did wonder if I had used the £20 one in the past[/quote]
I didn't get either! I wonder if it will reappear 🤔

This is going to cost them a lot of business. I bet they think Visa will be blackmailed into changing - but Amazon is a drop in the ocean to Visa.

@HannibalHayeski

If the BBC says it's nothing to do with Brexshit, you can bet your life it is everything to do with Brexshit...

Oh aye, what with the BBC having promoted Brexit so much :)

It wasn't the BBC saying that anyway, they were just reporting a statement.

What would Visa and Amazon have to gain from lying about it if it was due to Brexit?

Because they want to stay in the government's good books and not rock the boat with them, heaven forbid they start paying reasonable taxes.

I’m another who thought it was a scam email. To the point ai sent it to DH and said ‘ha ha - who would ever fall for a scam like this?’ - Amazon are complete iditos to have communicated this the way they did!

As for visa v mastercard. All my credit cards are visa. I will not use bank visa debit details online. I’m not opening a new credit card either so I will be stopping using Amazon from Jan! (Which isn’t a bad thing tbh)

@twosticksandanapple

It looks like another benefit of Brexit www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37706/visa-hikes-uk-eu-online-interchange-fees-faces-us-investigation-into-debit-card-practices

Visa is set to take advantage of Brexit to raise interchange fees on cross-border transactions between the UK and EU, according to the Financial Times. The move comes as the payments giant faces an investigation by the US Justice Department over possible anticompetitive practices in debit card transaction routing.

Prior to Brexit, UK merchants and card holders benefitted from a 0.3% cap on credit card interchange fees imposed by the European Commission.

But with the country withdrawing from Europe, from October Visa will increase the fees for online and over-the-phone purchases to 1.5%, says the FT, citing sources. The fee for debit card payments is also set to rise from 0.2% to 1.15%.

The rise mirrors a move already announced by Mastercard, which prompted widespread anger, with MP Kevin Hollinrake, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Fair Business Banking, saying it "smacks of opportunism".

Visa is also increasing scheme fees on UK-EU transactions from July 2022, as well as charging more for domestic payments using British company credit cards from April 2022, says the FT.

and yet both Amazon and Visa deny it has anything to do with Brexit according to the BBC report.

I assume you think they are lying - but why? Surely Brexit is a perfect excuse?

@BingBongToTheMoon

RBS is changing to Mastercard too.

I have had my RBS account since 1981. I have only ever had Access/Mastercard credit cards from them! I believe in recent years, they offered both. DH who worked for them for over 40 years has also only ever had Access/Mastercard until recently when he was able to get a RBS Visa as well.

Like a few others on here, I am old enough to remember when you only got free banking when you had a certain balance in the account. If balance went below, you paid for everything -cheque books were 35p plus a charge to process each cheque paid. There were other charges as well, just for having the account.
I think that Amazon definitely have the power to force Visa to revise their charges. If not, I wonder how long until they start forcing their cardholders to pay extra fees as well?

The original credit card in early 1970s was Barclaycard (Visa) , the other banks joined forces and formed Access, now Mastercard. I met ny husband when he was my shift leader at Access in 1972!!