The e-commerce company will continue to accept payments on Visa debit cards, along with credit cards issued by Mastercard and American Express
Amazon to stop accepting Visa credit cards in UK. (Credit: profivideos from Pixabay.)
Amazon is planning to refrain from accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK from January next year, due to high transaction fees charged by the payment processor.
The company would continue to accept payments on Visa debit cards, along with credit cards from other issuers, including Mastercard and American Express.
According to Amazon, Visa is charging excessive fees, which prevents businesses to provide services to consumers at low prices.
The costs should reduce over time due to advances in technology, instead, Visa is continuing to increase prices with no additional value to its service, said the e-commerce firm.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “As a result of Visa’s continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January 2022.”
A Visa spokesperson said in a statement: “We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future.
“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.”
Visa and its rival Mastercard have increased the fees on cross-border transactions between businesses in the UK and the European Union (EU), following Brexit.
Post-Brexit, the EU-enforced limit on fees charged by card issuers is no longer valid in the UK, which fuelled the increase in fees, according to a BBC report.
The two companies parted ways on the issue that the card company is charging the e-commerce giant a fee for its services in the UK.
Amazon’s move has alerted the UK Trade Commission to improve the UK-EU trade agreement and British regulators to look into the credit card fees, reported Reuters.
UK Trade and Business Commission Tamara Cincik told Reuters: “If Amazon can’t make it work, with all their resources and ability to navigate legislation to avoid costs, then small businesses have no chance and so the government must improve the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement to keep British businesses competitive.”