Amazon to stop accepting payments with Visa *credit* cards next year

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

but they are chinky bastards ...

[charles]

while BoS use Visa for debit and MC for credit.

[Fredxx]

Quite, some remainers would like to think anything egregious must be down to Brexit, and not an EU directive that capped transaction fees, and another EU directive banning surcharges due to the method of payment.

[Andrew]

Like MP's they are just following the 'rules' regarding transfer of profits between countries though, and these rules are defined by the WTO. Just change the WTO rules (have fun with that), or do all your shopping on the street. You have a choice at the end of the day.

Meanwhile Amazon pay all the taxes they should pay re Business rates, Employers NI (significant), apprentice levies etc etc on all their UK based staff.

[John Brown]

Chris Hogg [e-mail] wrote

Not hard to have a separate debit card and account which only has enough money in it for the purchase you are making. That way it can't be looted for more than that.

Fortunately my bank managed to claw it all back. Probably

No they don't and that's the problem.

[Alan]

Theo states the Law in a previous post. It is the Merchant charge that they are complaining about.

A shop owner on another forum has summed it up below, another person with some knowledge says Amazon are cosying up to Mastercard even more, and will be better off without Visa, and, basically, it looks like they are trying to dodge more taxes.

"Following on from my earlier point, as MC have already done this, and it only affects (AFAIK) cross border interchange, I cant see how Amazon won?t have asked for it for free. I _think_ that they?re processing cross border so they can call it a transaction somewhere else in the world for tax purposes. That was ok when we were inside the EU as charging extra was deemed a penalty for the remote country so banned.

VISA and MC have said it used to be capped and now its not, so back to the old days of 1.5% interchange (or whatever the new number is). Fair enough TBH ? just don?t run your txns cross border. Oh wait, you want to do that to avoid tax. I remember now.

So if you?re amazon you say no thanks. I want my cross border charges for free I will only pay you my base rate (which I wouldn?t be surprised at all if it was close to nothing at all). MC says yes as long as we play nice on other things, Visa says no.

Im with Visa on this one.

Maybe Ive read that wrong but it seems to me like Amazon are just being caught in their own complex web. My Visa rates havent gone up as far as I know unless I sell overseas. Now the EU is the same as everywhere else thats fair enough. I don?t like it but I expected it post-brexit."

[Andy Burns]

because this

[John Rumm]

They did that years ago...

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think so.

[The Natural Philosopher]

IME you are more likely to have your debit card scanned by some arbitrary motorway station than details being stolen online

I've used a debit card online for over 20 years with no issues

[Fredxx]

The cause of this is a EU directive, where suppliers are banned from passing on charge costs through a surcharge. It means that that the supplier has no choice but to take the hit on these fees. Visa has been making use of this to maximise revenue until their merchants started to scream. Amazon has muscles it is able to flex through it's enormity.

Another result of this EU directive is that HMRC no longer accept debit and credit card payments, requiring BACS or direct payments, except business accounts where they can still surcharge payments. All thanks to the EU.

Perhaps the removal of caps between the UK and EU, but not within the EU or within the UK may be a good thing for UK trade. Perhaps Amazon UK might even move from Luxembourg to the UK? Who knows?

[Michael Chare]

I used to have two Barclaycards, one was Visa and one was Mastercard a few years the Mastercard was changed to Visa. I don't recall an explanation at the time as to why this was done! I dislike having to use different cards for different purchases. I wonder what Amazon customers will do now.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

pay pal is cool in that you don't have to fill out endless forms when you buy on line....nasty what ebay bastards did to paypal....sad

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

with any luck they will stop buying from amazon and thus avoid having to cancel endless prime sign ups ....

[Chris Hogg]

I tend to use Amazon Smile, as it makes a small donation to a charity I volunteer with, for each purchase. But if Amazon don't do Paypal, I'm not going to use my debit card with them and the charity will be the loser, not by a lot but the loser nevertheless.

Occasionally I buy from e-bay, but only if I can't get want I want on Amazon, which isn't very often. But most of what I buy on Amazon seems to be available on e-bay in one form or another, so that's where I'll go in future.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

pure greed and to f*ck with the ebay sellers ...

[Chris Hogg]

So had I, but there's always a first time, as I found out. No fault of mine - the plant nursery's payment system was hacked, but I bore the consequences.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

but amazon is generally more expensive...and are fly bastards

[Andrew]

Meanwhile in Sussex, it's DIY ambulance time after what might have been an IT hack (we don't know yet) ...

<< Patients have been urged to ?take themselves to A&E? after an ambulance service declared a critical incident following an IT failure.

South East Coast Ambulance Service Trust said on Wednesday morning it had experienced a ?significant IT issue overnight?.

Tom Pullen, an operations manager at the service, urged patients to ?only call 999 for a life threatening emergency, and 111 for urgent issues that cannot wait?.

?Alternatives include taking yourself to A&E or calling your GP,? he wrote on Twitter.

The Trust said contingency plans have been implemented and people should continue to call 999 if they are facing a serious emergency.

The service covers an area of 3,600 square miles, including Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Surrey and North East Hampshire >>

[Andrew]

Just remember the little grey box where you have to clear the pre-inserted tick ?