Amazon will stop accepting UK-issued Visa credit cards from Jan. 19 next year.
In an email sent out to UK customers, which many thought was a hoax at first (myself included), Amazon explains that:
“Starting 19 January, 2022, we will unfortunately no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK, due to the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions. You can still use debit cards (including Visa debit cards) and non-Visa credit cards like Mastercard, Amex, and Eurocard to make purchases. Please update your default payment method now, or add one of these new, eligible payment methods if you do not have one.”
The move is sure to frustrate customers who rely on a Visa credit card to pay for orders, and switching to another type of card is never easy. It’s certainly not a task anyone would choose to perform over the holiday period.
As the BBC reports, Visa is obviously not happy about the decision, with a spokesperson saying:
“We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins … We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work toward a resolution, so our cardholders can use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022.”
Amazon argues that “The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers,” and that technology should allow the cost of digital transactions to get progressively lower, “but instead they continue to stay high or even rise.”
With Amazon having already taken the decision to withdraw support for the cards, it seems the only way Visa can stop it is to agree to lower their fees for Amazon purchases. If it does that, other retailers will no doubt demand the same and therefore it’s unlikely to happen.
