Visa (Credit) not everywhere you want to be

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bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

Amazon have sent out an e-mail this morning saying from 19th January 2022 they'll no longer accept Visa Credit cards because of "high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions". That sort of thing might well be rather inconvenient for someone who only has Visa Credit and no MasterCard credit cards.

I think someone posted elsewhere that MasterCard debit cards were seemingly making a return to some banks that had been Visa. Is this also the case with credit cards as well, or are some people going to be a bit stuck without taking out another card?

It is funny to see that Amex being touted as an acceptable alternative considering how high Amex fees have been traditionally. Obviously their retention is nothing to do with the Amazon-branded Amex cards at all.
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gottago
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Brexit again.

noqmeb
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Joined: Wed 10 Nov, 2021 12.03

Presumably Amazon were happy to pay the charges prior to 2015 (I think) when the EU cap was introduced?

Sorry Amazon I don’t but it. It may well be a result of leaving the EU however there is something more at play here.
bilky asko
Posts: 1400
Joined: Sat 08 Nov, 2008 19.48

gottago wrote: Wed 17 Nov, 2021 11.04 Brexit again.

Both Amazon and Visa have denied it's down to the increase in interchange fees, that are no longer capped due to Brexit (which MasterCard have also increased). Amazon are claiming it's down to transaction fees being too high, but there are rumours that there are other factors at play.
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Jonwo
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Joined: Sat 26 Apr, 2008 02.05

I’m surprised there are any Visa Credit cards left, I assume most banks had switched to Mastercard
bilky asko
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Jonwo wrote: Thu 18 Nov, 2021 12.13 I’m surprised there are any Visa Credit cards left, I assume most banks had switched to Mastercard
Barclaycard still use Visa, HSBC do too (they seem to have a mixture of the two depending on the card), and I believe Vanquis still use them as well.
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Martin Phillp
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Jonwo wrote: Thu 18 Nov, 2021 12.13 I’m surprised there are any Visa Credit cards left, I assume most banks had switched to Mastercard
I'm still using Visa Debit with Natwest, but they're going to start issuing Debit Mastercard from December to existing customers.
TVF's London Lite.
cwathen
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I'm not sure that it is really that much of a problem for the consumer to sort out given the notice being provided. Even if you have poor credit history and are using say a Vanquis card for credit building, if the account is in order you almost certainly will get approved for a Capital One/Aqua/other credit builder card all of which use Mastercard.

If you have a Barclaycard with a fat limit and long interest free period on it, then again I doubt you'll have too much difficult taking out another major bank-issued credit card on similar terms. As a consumer it's some unforeseen hoops to jump through but is unlikely to cut you off from Amazon if you want to still use them and pay by credit card.

I would say it's pretty obvious that it is just a stunt Amazon are deploying with the intention of pushing Visa into dropping their transaction fees and the block on accepting Visa Credit is not actually intended to happen.

Something which does need to be sorted out generally though are the much higher fees retailers pay to process credit cards vs debit. For a long time as noted many retailers have not taken Amex because of their high fees, but now that card charges can't be passed on to customers (something I agree with given many businesses were clearly not just passing charges on but were profiting from them) I can see it becoming more and more common to refuse to accept credit cards on low-margin transactions. That's not going to be good news for the consumer, not just because of the financial implications of being unable to stick a purchase on credit, but also the loss of the improved protections you get when paying by credit card.
cdd
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More generally, I would have hoped the interchange cap would have been removed entirely from the EU-inherited U.K. law, rather than this grey area (which benefits nobody except card issuers).

If the US is any indication, retailers don’t increase prices by the amount of the fee to compensate and fully pass through the costs, and would still accept cards (because the alternative is cash which has higher processing costs, as well as deterring purchases); but the consumer benefits through more lucrative cashback (etc) rewards on spending.

Sadly I don’t expect this to be a popular view and the optics of the government eliminating the cap would be awful. Which is a shame as for consumers (but not retailers) it could be one genuine benefit of Brexit!
BBC TV Centre
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Interesting you should mention the US cdd, and costs for cards/cash - I know during my travels in the US some gas stations had different prices for cash and credit.

I'm surprised that people are kicking off and screaming they'll go elsewhere, why just not using another card?

Do people really just rely on one card for everything?

I'm personally well covered, I have an Mastercard, Visa Credit and Amex, so it doesn't really matter which. Poor cyber security effort by Amazon to have button and links to click to update card details, no doubt the phishers will be firing out emails with a similar vein very soon.
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WillPS
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Anyone affected could just use a Curve card or buy Amazon gift cards if they for whatever reason want to stick with just their existing Visa.

It's akin to a carriage dispute anyway, it'll likely be resolved within a few months.
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