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Visa credit cards on Amazon

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Dod101
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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459163

Postby Dod101 » November 19th, 2021, 7:32 am

Lanark wrote:First Direct and Natwest have also ditched Visa replacing them with Mastercard this year.

I have to wonder if when the last bank drops Visa, then Mastercard will hike their fees?


HSBC changed my credit card from Visa to Mastercard a couple of years ago but my debit card is still VISA.

Dod

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459241

Postby Laughton » November 19th, 2021, 11:20 am

HSBC changed my credit card from Visa to Mastercard a couple of years ago but my debit card is still VISA.


Do you mean the other way around? That's the way it currently is with First Direct - (owned by HSBC).

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459336

Postby Hallucigenia » November 19th, 2021, 4:27 pm

Lootman wrote:Has Visa been trying to jack up its interchange fees? Both Visa and MC historically had low interchange fees in the UK, relative to what they charge in the US. That is why welcome bonuses, cashback and point/mile earning rates on UK cards are low compared to what you get in the US.

Whereas Amex always had high fees, which is why they are less well accepted in the UK.


I'm surprised you weren't aware of this given your wide reading across the spectrum on matters to do with Brexit. But yes, this is one of those stories where Brexit plays a big part, it's not the only reason but it interacts with other factors to make things much worse for people in the UK than elsewhere.

In 2015 the European Parliament voted to introduce the Interchange Fee Regulation in an attempt to standardise card processing across the Single Market and give more transparency on fees. It also capped debit card interchange fees at 0.2% and credit cards at 0.3% for transactions where merchant, acquirer and card issuer were all based in the EU (and extended to the EEA).

Following Brexit, the UK onshored the IFR in the Interchange Fee (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 - so the 0.2/0.3% caps apply on transactions with UK cards with UK stores.

However, when you buy something from amazon.co.uk, you're not buying from a UK company, you're buying from Amazon Europe Core SARL in the more ... tax-efficient ... location of Luxembourg. Before Brexit this didn't matter, as a British card transaction with a Luxembourg company still counted as an EE-to-EEA transaction, but after Brexit it's a "foreign" transaction and so isn't regulated. And at the moment the card companies are looking at any way to increase revenue after the pandemic so after Brexit happened they announced that fees for these "foreign" transactions would be going up to 1.5%.

Bloomberg has more detail - reading between the lines, although both are going to 1.5% Visa is being more aggressive than Mastercard about its price rises and eg having separate rates for online purchases, whereas Mastercard are unwilling to upset their relationship with Amazon's credit card division. And the UK is a pretty small pawn in a wider battle ranging from the US to the EU.

Amex doesn't have interchange fees as they combine the roles of "bank" and "card company" so they're not strictly comparable (and are only partly subject to the IFR rules), but some of their rates go down to 1.3% although 2-3% is more typical, so yes Visa/Mastercard are starting to encroach on Amex territory. But the usual argument for ignoring Amex is 1) they're 1% of the UK market and 2) their cardholders spend more, so overall profits are better if you accommodate Amex holders. The UK and Ireland are rather unusual in having Visa with >80% of the credit card market, other than Spain they're <50% in all other European countries.

swill453
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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459355

Postby swill453 » November 19th, 2021, 5:12 pm

I've applied for (and got) the Amazon Mastercard, with its £40 bonus. And also made a (different) Mastercard my default payment card so picked up another £20 bonus for that.

Scott.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459372

Postby Alaric » November 19th, 2021, 6:00 pm

Hallucigenia wrote:However, when you buy something from amazon.co.uk, you're not buying from a UK company, you're buying from Amazon Europe Core SARL in the more ... tax-efficient ... location of Luxembourg.


The point being made is that Amazon are putting their profits ahead of the interests of British consumers.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459374

Postby swill453 » November 19th, 2021, 6:05 pm

Alaric wrote:The point being made is that Amazon are putting their profits ahead of the interests of British consumers.

Don't all retailers do that?

Scott.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#459400

Postby Hallucigenia » November 19th, 2021, 7:39 pm

Alaric wrote:
Hallucigenia wrote:However, when you buy something from amazon.co.uk, you're not buying from a UK company, you're buying from Amazon Europe Core SARL in the more ... tax-efficient ... location of Luxembourg.


The point being made is that Amazon are putting their profits ahead of the interests of British consumers.


Another point to consider is that borders create distortions, which organisations can take advantage of - as my Border Reiver ancestors did, it's nothing new. I'm sure Amazon would love to put their profits ahead of the interests of their German customers and Italian customers too - but they can't, because there's no border (for these purposes) between Luxembourg and Germany/Italy.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#473732

Postby swill453 » January 17th, 2022, 10:40 am

Just got an email from Amazon saying they are backtracking on this:
The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19

I guess their brinkmanship paid off.

Scott.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#473735

Postby BullDog » January 17th, 2022, 10:44 am

swill453 wrote:Just got an email from Amazon saying they are backtracking on this:
The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19

I guess their brinkmanship paid off.

Scott.

It's the sheer weight of Amazon's business at play here. Makes you wonder what Amazon could do if they really flexed their muscles. A bit scary to think about it really.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#473816

Postby AF62 » January 17th, 2022, 2:07 pm

swill453 wrote:Just got an email from Amazon saying they are backtracking on this:
The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19

I guess their brinkmanship paid off.

Scott.


Would be very interesting to know how much VISA has changed its fees to Amazon to be allowed to remain as a payment option.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#473887

Postby raybarrow » January 17th, 2022, 6:59 pm

Just had an email saying not accepting Visa is hold for now, negotiations are taking place.

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 that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk. 

Should we make any changes related to Visa credit cards, we will give you advance notice. Until then, you can continue to use Visa credit cards, debit cards, Mastercard, American Express, and Eurocard as you do today.

Thank you for being an Amazon customer.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#481117

Postby pje16 » February 17th, 2022, 9:02 am

Update - they have reversed their decision
just had an email that says

"We’ve recently reached a global agreement with Visa that allows all customers to continue using their Visa credit cards in our stores. As a result, we will not move forward with our previous plans to stop accepting UK issued Visa credit cards. To add or update a payment method, go directly to Your account or visit the help page on Add & Manage Payment Methods."

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#481120

Postby Lanark » February 17th, 2022, 9:36 am

AF62 wrote:Would be very interesting to know how much VISA has changed its fees to Amazon to be allowed to remain as a payment option.

You are all assuming it was Visa that blinked, but we don't know that, it could equally have been that Amazon did the sums on half its customers no longer having a payment method setup.

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#481122

Postby Laughton » February 17th, 2022, 9:39 am

Well, as Amazon call at our house seemingly two or three times a week, I took out a MasterCard with Tesco to avoid any problems. Have now switched all my spending to the new Tesco card which earns small number of points each time.

As the saying goes, "every little helps".

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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#481132

Postby servodude » February 17th, 2022, 10:22 am

Lanark wrote:
AF62 wrote:Would be very interesting to know how much VISA has changed its fees to Amazon to be allowed to remain as a payment option.

You are all assuming it was Visa that blinked, but we don't know that, it could equally have been that Amazon did the sums on half its customers no longer having a payment method setup.


Half of their customers "in the UK"..
....but mostly it was a flex to put Visa on a bit of notice.

-sd

pje16
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Re: Visa credit cards on Amazon

#481133

Postby pje16 » February 17th, 2022, 10:24 am

Laughton wrote:Well, as Amazon call at our house seemingly two or three times a week, I took out a MasterCard with Tesco to avoid any problems. Have now switched all my spending to the new Tesco card which earns small number of points each time.

As the saying goes, "every little helps".

I use my Tesco card at Tesco - more points given there
and on Amazon the
Amazon Platinum MasterCard
get a £20 gift card for signing up :D
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Platinu ... B01LSOD0ZI


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