Amazon to stop accepting Visa’s UK-issued credit cards
WASHINGTON: Amazon.com Inc. will stop accepting purchases made with Visa Inc. credit cards issued in the UK starting next year, the latest attempt by the online giant to push back against transaction fees charged by payment networks.
Amazon users were told of the changes this week. After making purchases they received a notification from the company saying that from January 19, 2022 “we will no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK” due to the high fees charged to process transactions. An Amazon spokesperson said “the cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers.”
Customers can still use Visa debit cards, as well as MasterCard Inc. and American Express Co. credit cards, as well as Visa credit cards issued outside of the U.K., the retailer told users, offering them twenty pounds ($27) off their next purchase if they set a debit or non-Visa credit card as their payment default. In Singapore and Australia, Amazon has already imposed a surcharge for those using Visa credit cards.
“We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins,” a Visa spokesman said in an email. “We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work toward a resolution.”
The issue is a particularly sensitive one in the U.K. following Brexit, with both Visa and Mastercard drawing scrutiny for upping certain fees now the U.K. is outside the European Union. Research this week showed credit and debit card costs have increased by 150 million pounds a year, with both U.K. and European retailers losing out.
Britain’s departure from the EU removed caps on transactions between the U.K. and the European Economic Area allowing card firms to increase crossborder payment fees, according to retail payments advisory firm CMS Payments Intelligence and the British Retail Consortium.
Card fees are already a flashpoint between merchants, banks and payment networks such as Mastercard and Visa, the world’s largest.
Retailers have long complained about the billions they spend each year to accept electronic payments, a figure that’s grown to more than $100 billion a year in the US as fees increase and consumers flock to premium cards, which carry higher interchange rates—fees charged every time a consumer uses a card.
Back in 2016, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sued Visa Inc.’s U.S. unit over the cost of processing payments. In 2018, supermarket chain Kroger Co. stopped accepting Visa’s credit cards at its Foods Co. subsidiary in California.