Battle on the cards as Visa faces Amazon

AMAZON will stop accepting Visa credit card payments from its UK customers on Wednesday, following a fees row between the online giant and the transactions processing group.

Customers will still be able to use debit cards issued by banks and building societies that use the Visa network, as well as cards that use rival payment platforms such as Mastercard and Amex.

Retailers have long been unhappy with the fees charged by payment processing groups – which typically are a small percentage of each transaction – as they eat into their revenues.

Financial technology group Gocardless said Amazon’s fees fight withvisa and the new technology and payment systems being developed are encouraging other retailers to push back on card transaction charges.

Director Siamac Rezaiezadeh said: “With just a few days to go before Amazon’s ban comes into effect, customers and merchants are waiting anxiously to see who will win in this ‘Goliath v. Goliath’ battle.

“No matter what happens though, the damage has already been done. Retailers everywhere are challenging the card networks with Allsaints, Superdry and Levi’s just some of the other brands now tackling high fees, this time through legal action.”

Amazon believes high card processing costs, which rose after Brexit, are an obstacle to businesses.

It thinks that they should be falling, rather than rising. Its Visa credit card ban in the UK is the latest salvo in a row between the two companies, which has seen it limit the use of Visa cards in Singapore and Australia.