Due to 'high cost of payments', Amazon UK will stop accepting Visa credit cards. This move will be effective from January 19. The company will exempt purchases made with Visa debit cards.
Amazon informed its customers about the decision and declared it had taken the decision due to "high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions" on its UK cards.
A spokesperson told a news source, "The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers. These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise."
Visa has moved to take advantage of Brexit to raise interchange fees on cross-border transactions between the UK and EU. Prior to Brexit, UK merchants and card holders benefitted from a 0.3% cap on credit card interchange fees imposed by the European Commission.
But with the country withdrawing from Europe, Visa is increasing the fees for online and over-the-phone purchases to 1.5%. For debit card transactions, the rate will go up from 0.2% to 1.15% in January, inline with similar moves from Mastercard.
The customers of Amazon who use Visa credit card as a default payment option have been advised by the company to switch to another card.
Visa expressed disappointment at Amazon's threat to "restrict consumer choice in the future".
"When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins," a spokesperson says. "We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work toward a resolution, so our cardholders can use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022."
