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Amazon will do stop accepting issued Visa credit cards It’s in the UK from mid-January, the company said on Wednesday.
In an email to customers, Amazon said the change was due to “high Visa fees” for processing credit card transactions. Visa debit cards and other credit cards including Mastercard and American Express will continue to be accepted. The change will come into effect on January 19.
Amazon said it believes credit card payment costs—small percentages of the transaction price that issuers charge retailers—should “fall off over time with technological advances.” Instead, the company said costs remain high.
“We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future,” Visa said in a statement. He said he’s still working on a solution.
For years, merchants have complained about transaction fees affecting their revenues – some retailers, for example, don’t accept American Express because of its high rates – but Amazon’s take on the challenge could add to the pressure. Visa and others may have to compromise rates or risk fallout with the world’s largest online retailer.
Banning credit card transactions in the UK has gone the farthest, though Amazon says Visa charges are a global issue. In Singapore, Amazon added a 0.5 percent surcharge to all purchases made using Visa credit cards from mid-September.
according to the UK Payment Systems RegulatorAs an independent agency, some of the fees paid to Mastercard and Visa nearly doubled between 2014 and 2018.
Businesses in the UK have already faced higher credit card fees this year after the country left the European Union. No longer protected by the block’s fee cap, Visa and Mastercard plans to increase fees For online cross-border purchases made between the UK and many countries in Europe.
NS British Retail Consortium It said on Wednesday that retailers in the UK and the European Economic Area are facing an additional £150m ($202m) per year to accept cross-border card payments.
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