Amazon stop accepting Visa Credit cards from 19th Jan 22??!

[Scam]

@Scam your response doesn’t makes sense and is contrary to what @Iamzod wrote.

He quite rightly stating that the UK/UK interchange fee for both is 0.3%. What do you mean by the below?

MasterCard made an identical fee hike but it hasn’t been blocked by Amazon.

Both MC and Visa have intra-regional interchange fees at 1.5% since we left the EU, MC actually raised them first. Some might blame Brexit for us UK consumers paying more now

I’ve noticed that a lot of previously EU companies have incorporated in the U.K. to take payments from U.K. customers.

You wonder why a company as big as Amazon can't figure out a way around the intra-regional fee. Perhaps it's because *cough* they want to push customers into their Mastercard?

The interchange fee back to the EU makes sense as to why they have done it as that’s potentially 1% of their gross income lost to the fee. That is not an insignificant amount of money when it’s your gross sales.

The interchange fee is paid by Amazon's bank, not them. Them wading into this is just publicly trying to shame Visa, force the issue, and (for the fourth time in this thread ) push people into using their Mastercard.

 

[Iamzod]

The interchange fee is paid by Amazon's bank, not them. Them wading into this is just publicly trying to shame Visa, force the issue, and (for the fourth time in this thread ) push people into using their Mastercard.

I would imagine that whomever is billing Amazon for their payment processing will have them on an Interchange + scheme fee + a margin pricing structure, essentially cost plus a margin. Given that the scheme fees have been messed with it will have a direct impact on Amazon as the fees will be passed on at cost.

 

[SPG]

So it's about tax dodging to Luxembourg then. No great loss.

 

[Iamzod]

So it's about tax dodging to Luxembourg then. No great loss.

Looks that way, now they want the general public to assist them and make changes to how they spend money so that it costs them less.

 

[raralis]

Looks like it won't affect all Amazon accounts.

This policy does not apply to Amazon Business accounts. Amazon Business Prime, and any Amazon Business purchases, will not be impacted by the upcoming Visa Credit card changes.

I won't be surprised if people start applying for Business accounts.

 

[Werewolf]

Looks like it won't affect all Amazon accounts.



I won't be surprised if people start applying for Business accounts.

Which for the average person would likely be a bad thing to do, as B2B transactions have few of the consumer protections B2C ones do.

Personally I'm probably end up picking up amazon gift cards to pay for stuff - I'm guessing amazon loses a lot more than 1.5% of the face value in the share of the price that the retailers take.

 

[Hedge]

Surely visa will just negotiate with them and lower the fee. I doubt visa want to lose this revenue stream.

 

[200sols]

Surely visa will just negotiate with them and lower the fee. I doubt visa want to lose this revenue stream.

They dont want to be bullied either. They will have been talking before this announcement and obviously they couldn't agree.

 

[Guest2]

Which for the average person would likely be a bad thing to do, as B2B transactions have few of the consumer protections B2C ones do.

Personally I'm probably end up picking up amazon gift cards to pay for stuff - I'm guessing amazon loses a lot more than 1.5% of the face value in the share of the price that the retailers take.

Can you buy Amazon gift cards from other retailers (high street or online) who accept Visa credit?
Edit, of course you can. I’ve bought them in Wilkos before. But at the physical cards the same as buying them as a digital top up direct from Amazon? Is the same buyer protection covered on gift cards?
So far it seems like the best option is an M&S mastercard creditcard. Build some points for things too

 

[tlrBeta]

Tax "dodging" - tax efficient supply chain model (actual name), won't exist very shortly given the G7 agreements of standard tax.

I would imagine that whomever is billing Amazon for their payment processing will have them on an Interchange + scheme fee + a margin pricing structure, essentially cost plus a margin. Given that the scheme fees have been messed with it will have a direct impact on Amazon as the fees will be passed on at cost.

Correct, payment processing - aka. Acquirer

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Amazon don't have to switch their scheme to Mastercard to see the data on your spends elsewhere, folks. Not sure who raised it but this is not about that.

 

[stoofa]

so you get £10 gift card after spending £333.33 is that my useless GCSE maths coming back to me

On Amazon.co.uk
Earn 3 Amazon Reward Points
per £2 spent

Everywhere else
Earn 0.5 Amazon Reward Point
per £2 spent
Amazon Reward Points 1000 Points = £10 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card

Oh it's something as mad as that. I only took the card out initially as it gave £30 worth of Amazon vouchers from what I remember. As I purchase a fair but from Amazon, it trickles though at the 3pts per £2.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

To be honest, I don’t often find myself agreeing with Amazon when it comes to business practices but I do in this case.

I really don’t get the criticism from some people here, I assume that’s just because it’s Amazon and it’s cool to lay down the hate. If you took out the name Amazon and replaced it with John Lewis, I’d expect the comments would be very different. Visa and MasterCard are also up there as scourges of the business world, leaching away money there they can and making money hand over fist just because of who they are.

VISA, Mastercard and to a lesser extent AMEX have formed a cartel within the card payment processing industry which is next to impossible to break into due to all of the regs that surround it. They are utterly ruthless in their business practices to ensure they can maintain their position. It’s super convenient that cash is slowly irrelevant irrelevant moving nearly all transactions to their platforms and they do everything they can to accelerate this. The fees they charge (particularly outside of the EU where they are capped) are extortionate. Most business don’t have the weight of Amazon to throw around and simply have to suck it up and pay.

There is a reason why the EU had to step in and it’s not because VISA and MasterCard have everyone’s back and are the shining light in the industry. It’s because they are ripping everyone off and it’s next to impossible for competition to fix that.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

b0rn2sk8: Can't believe people object to MEGA CORPORATION AMAZON because they're my buddies!
b0rn2sk8: Also, MEGA CORPORATIONS visa, mc, and amex suck, what is wrong with you guys, wake up sheeple.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

b0rn2sk8: Can't believe people object to MEGA CORPORATION AMAZON because they're my buddies!
b0rn2sk8: Also, MEGA CORPORATIONS visa, mc, and amex suck, what is wrong with you guys, wake up sheeple.

Really, that’s what you took from that?

That’s not what I said and clearly your post is a deliberate attempt to find fault by stripping out all of the context I literally said, ‘I don’t often find myself agreeing with Amazon’. Aka I normally don’t agree with their practices.

So you think Amazon are wrong to stand up to VISA who have been ripping off everyone for decades because Amazon also has some questionable practices?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Really, that’s what you took from that?

That’s not what I said and clearly your post is a deliberate attempt to find fault by stripping out all of the context I literally said, ‘I don’t often find myself agreeing with Amazon’. Aka I normally don’t agree with their practices.

Actually, you're right. I skipped the first part of the sentence because it seemed like a pre-qualifier for your end position which was "I agree with Amazon". I think your overall point is wrong but I agree I jumped the gun there. Apologies.

So you think Amazon are wrong to stand up to VISA who have been ripping off everyone for decades because Amazon also has some questionable practices?

I think if you're looking for a knight in shining armour to vanquish the Terrible Schemes (tm) - while also buddying up with one of those same schemes, like Amazon is - then we call that unconscious bias.

Amazon are not 'standing up to VISA' in the way you mean and it's clear from what you've said you have a very thin grasp on the deals that are going on here. That's fine, not a judgement, and apologies for sounding like an asshat. Amazon are commercially leveraging an opportunity because it is advantageous for a number of reasons but, for what it is worth, two of those reasons are not OH NOES MY DATA, and OH NOES LETS HELP CUSTOMERS.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

But that’s not what I said either, you’ve just inferred another position in the absence of something that didn’t quite fit the narrative you were looking to take.

For the record, do I think Amazon are fixing the problem for Amazon and Amazon only? Yes of course that is the case.

But they are shining a light on an issue that probably needs to be dealt with my regulators.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock and have yet to realise that regulators only deal with something like this when lots of people start shouting about it then nothing is actually going to happen until people do.

Perhaps Amazon is the wrong business to start this conversation as they are not exactly the gold standards for moral business practices but it could be the catalyst for others to pile in and make the change.

That said it would likely need some U.K.-EU cooperation for some cross boarder agreement as one would assume the same also applies in the other direction. The issue is that both are currently distracted by fishing despite it being negligible in the grand scheme of things and if you hadn’t guessed it, it’s because they are shouting the loudest.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

What is the "issue that probably needs to be dealt with my regulators"?

Sorry, I didn't realise the latest Amazon not-unexpected decision was just your tool to get to your main point about *checks notes* regulation?

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Well VISA and MC used Brexit as an opportunity to hike fees and make more profit because we are no longer in scope of EU directives stopping them. The same thing happened with mobile operators when we left the EU, they reintroduced roaming charges because they were no longer in scope of that EU directive.

Capitalism is in general is fine and it has lots of advantages but in the real world true ‘free market capitalism’ typically results in exploitation of the market and a certain amount of regulation is pretty much always needed do deal with it. Particularly where monopolies, duopolies or a form of a cartel forms like in the card processing space.

Without regulation the end game typically results in the groups with the least power (typically the end consumer and employees) being exploited.

 

[Scam]

Personally I'm probably end up picking up amazon gift cards to pay for stuff - I'm guessing amazon loses a lot more than 1.5% of the face value in the share of the price that the retailers take.

Personally I'd advise everyone to get an Amex and see how Amazon like that

Amazon don't have to switch their scheme to Mastercard to see the data on your spends elsewhere, folks. Not sure who raised it but this is not about that.

It was me. Are you saying that Amazon can see spends on my non-Amazon credit card? Pretty sure that's not the case, that personal data is very much locked down... I was saying that with Amazon's co-branded Mastercard they could probably see your spending elsewhere. That data is super-valuable to a company like Amazon.

I really don’t get the criticism from some people here, I assume that’s just because it’s Amazon and it’s cool to lay down the hate. If you took out the name Amazon and replaced it with John Lewis, I’d expect the comments would be very different. Visa and MasterCard are also up there as scourges of the business world, leaching away money there they can and making money hand over fist just because of who they are.

What a load of nonsense. Visa, Mastercard etc. are payment scheme providers - they are not banks they are technology companies. The separation of scheme and processing in 2016 happened because of this attitude. Because people thought there was some sort of monopoly on processing transactions. It opened the way for any Joe Bloggs to come in and start their own payment scheme infrastructure, and you know what? No-one has. Trying to create a worldwide network of payment processing with 100% uptime, doing crazy things like approving contactless transactions on the tube within a millisecond before the idiot behind you starts sighing etc. You only have to see what headline news it is when bank's own systems go down, imagine what would happen if Visa or Mastercard went down, in today's world? It's amazing what they do really.