Saw this in the papers this morning and got the email from Amazon. They will not be accepting UK based Visa credit cards from 2022. Guess ebuyer and Scan will be happy with this, more business for them.
Saw this in the papers this morning and got the email from Amazon. They will not be accepting UK based Visa credit cards from 2022. Guess ebuyer and Scan will be happy with this, more business for them.
JABULANI NONKE
Had to Google this as I didn't quite believe it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59306200
I suspect its a negotiating tactic with VISA. Got to be honest I don't use credit cards with Amazon anymore as I found it hard to track spending that way so won't affect me personally. I'm sure it'll be sorted anyway once Amazon/VISA have decided they are happy with a their slice of the pie.
Amazon credit card anyone?
Heh. This is just Amazon's public negotiating tactics. They also want to get ahead of Mastercard/Amex doing anything similar.
Obviously, the risk is that MC/A will identify the opportunity for profit and increase their rates similarly.
If they get sufficiently annoyed, I bet Amazon could probably start to create their own credit card & payment processing company.
Tell you what my wife will be happy if it does happen, she will be saving a lot of money
Last edited by Kovoet; 17-11-2021 at 03:51 PM.
JABULANI NONKE
Regardless of Amazon this is going to spike prices all over, especially small businesses that can't absorb the cost. From 0.3% to 1.5 is a massive jump, and will see the merchant banks also increase their fees. It's worth noting MasterCard have already made the jump to 1.5%.
We definitely need our own homegrown payment gateway. They're all American, no competition whatsoever
Amazon has a long history of screwing over its own Marketplace sellers with arbitary reasons. The fact is they repeatedly abuse their competitive position to benefit themselves and not their customers. Look at how they tried to ban Google devices off their own platform since they were competing with their own devices?? They did the same with so many phone accessory companies,some of which have been around for years,and have gotten excellent reviews from well known websites,and even people on this forum.In the end again pushes people towards Amazon "partnered" companies and their own branded products.
Yet at the same time,they also don't seem to care that stuff they actually sell can be fake or dodgy. Its why I won't trust Amazon for certain things like branded cables,original camera batteries,etc. They just go with the cheapest suppliers they can find,and don't bother to check properly if the stuff is real or fake(yet find ways to screwover legitimate companies on their own marketplace since they are taking business from them).
As much VISA/Mastercard/AMEX and all of these kinds of firms are hardly Paragons of Virtue and need to be regulated too,Amazon is a bigger issue worldwide. They repeatedly abuse their position,and are quite a danger to lots of smaller indigenous competitors worldwide.
The fact is they have banned the only company which has not partnered with them for a credit card. They are only offering Mastercard/AMEX branded cards,because they make money out of it through interest charges(which I suspect are not great). This is what all these "branded" credit cards are - a quick way to make money,via high interest rates. This is no different than MS trying to force MS Explorer as a default option. Luckily the regulators in the EU,etc made sure MS didn't get its way.
Now think of all the Amazon addicts who use a VISA credit card. What do you think they are going to do - dump a credit card they have used for years,built up a good rating on,etc?
Nope,they will apply for the Amazon one instead. Personally I am already using whatever alternatives I can to Amazon,and I think even in the UK we really should be diversifying away from that before they destroy all the local competitors.
Mastercard increased rates too:
https://www.cashmatters.org/blog/mas...k-purchases-eu
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426
They did it before VISA did:The Financial Times reports that Mastercard will raise fees to more than five times the current amount for British shoppers using a card to buy from EU-based companies, providing a timely reminder of the power card providers wield over customers reliant on them for payments.
Both Mastercard and Visa add an ‘interchange fee’ to every credit or debit card payment using their networks, and in 2015 the European Union introduced a cap on these fees in response to concerns that ‘hidden expenses’ for companies and consumers were reaching hundreds of millions of euros.
Post-Brexit, Mastercard has informed merchants this cap will no longer apply to certain transactions because payments between Britain and the European Economic Area are now technically ‘inter-regional.’ As a result, from 15 October 2021, Mastercard will charge 1.5 percent of each transaction’s value for every online credit card payment from the UK to the EU. This is a 500 percent rise over the present 0.3 percent charge. Debit card payments will increase from 0.2 percent to 1.15 percent.
https://www.ft.com/content/39f553a0-...e-0b9fd75554b0
https://www.ft.com/content/4820b619-...3-fc685c047374
They were the first to do it,which gave VISA,etc the leeway to do it months later.
I would assume AMEX is doing the same,but the difference is both Mastercard and AMEX are on Amazon issued credit cards(didn't realise AMEX was also on them until someone pointed it out on OcUK forums),so they no doubt get a share of the interest generated on such cards.
The reality is that its better to use a UK based retailer anyway.
What people are seeing is another company which seems to be UK based but actually is based elsewhere for the financial part of the business,so you are doing business with a foreign company hence you get charged the higher fees...
The best way around this is to use UK based alternatives where possible.
But anything over £100 means you are protected by the credit laws somewhat better than a debit card linked to your current account.
Apex (17-11-2021)
Well, this Visa-card-only Amazon user (not an addict though) isn't bothering with doing that. I'll probably use the annual subscription option for the Amazon services I use, while I can, but for everything else, just shop elsewhere. There is a convenience to Amazon for sure, but I managed without them for years, and won't have any trouble doing so again. For smaller items (sub-£100) the extra consumer protections don't apply anyway, and I'll just revert to looking fort at John Lewis, et.al., for more expensive items. Or, like the new TV, Costco.
I'm not a credit card fan anyway. i have one, and one is all I need. I'm not very keen on giving Amazon my debit card number either.
Maybe those saying this is negotiating brinkmanship are right and we'll get a "we solved it" email before this actually kicks in, but if not, all it really does to me is ensure I spend a lot more at other places and a lot less at Amazon. Oh well. Whatever.
Oh, and I'll probably buy a lot fewer smallish 'whim' items, especially those from tiny, unknown suppliers, too. Wot a loss.
A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".
CAT-THE-FIFTH (17-11-2021)
I have tended to spread my purchases around,although TBF during the last year I have used them a bit more than normal,but still wary of giving them too much business. Plus Amazon Logistics is the worst delivery company I have ever had the experience of using,especially with their Indian or South American CS unable to actually do anything when they screw-up apart from asking you to wait another few days....for next day delivery. So many other UK companies can actually offer morning and delivery slots - Amazon Prime is rather archaic in many ways. Its great as long as you are in all day,or have a locker nearby.
An article on the BBC also said something about offering £20 compensaton to Prime customers (like me) and £10 to others, for the inconvenience.
News to me. My email didn't mention that.
Also, I don't give a fig. It'd be a LOT more hassle to me to faff around getting another card than that. I'd rather just get another shop that will still take Visa.
A lesson learned from PeterB about dignity in adversity, so Peter, In Memorium, "Onwards and Upwards".
I did read that it was only the UK because, for some reason, we aren't maintaining a maximum cap on fees that the EU, when we were still members, had.
Seems rather like the roaming mobile cap again.
Don't know if its something we didn't retain, didn't implement, actively got rid of or just not the case.
In 2015, EU law had capped credit card interchange fees at 0.3%. However, after Brexit, the UK no longer enjoys that ceiling. Visa having increased these charges to 1.5% for Brits.
MasterCard made an identical fee hike but it hasn’t been blocked by Amazon.
Article from March 2021 here, regarding Visa set to raise fees after removal of EU cap post-Brexit >> https://www.ft.com/content/4820b619-...3-fc685c047374
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