Amazon calls a truce in Visa card fee battle

AMAZON has reversed a decision to stop accepting Visa credit cards.

The online retailer is in dispute with the finance company over fees but it is now thought the two sides are close to agreement.

Amazon had been offering customers a £20 saving on purchases for switching away from Visa ahead of the planned cut-off point tomorrow. Up to 90 per cent of UK households have an Amazon account and around one third have Visa cards.

Amazon told customers yesterday: ‘The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon. co.uk will no longer take place on January 19. We are working closely with Visa on a potential solution.’

Retailers and small businesses have complained about the high processing fees imposed by both Visa and Mastercard to handle customer purchases. They said they added up to around £1.3billion a year – £46 for each household.