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

[charles]

I once had a problems with my debit card - only it was still in the post to me when the transaction happened. No problem in getting my money back.

[Theo]

Major retailers can negotiate their own terms - if they're say a parking meter company that takes a lot of small transactions, they might have a special deal. For example the work coffee vending machine is contactless only, and I very much doubt much of the 35p price of a coffee goes on transaction costs (I don't believe the machine is subsidised).

I think that's outsourced via a bank? In other words Amazon doesn't have a credit licence, they just brand a card from somebody else and get a kickback for signing people up. Similar to football club etc cards. Someone else mentioned it's Newday, who bought Santander's store card business.

Obviously Amazon would not want to excommunicate their own card customers.

Klarna offers 'pay in three installments' services, which are popular as a form of credit that doesn't impact credit records. They're pushed heavily by some websites (clothing, homewares, etc) to encourage you to spend more. They don't have any connection with Amazon, but you may be able to charge things to a Klarna account somehow.

Theo

[Sn!pe]

This Amazon customer will use my Amazon Platinum Mastercard credit card (operated by New Day OBO Amazon), which I've already set as my default payment card on Amazon's website. I settle that in full each month with my Monzo Mastercard debit card (sacrificial for Internet use) which I top up as needed from my main Barclays account.

The Barclays account never gets used on the Internet, thus creating a firebreak between Internet use and Real Life bank accounts. The worst that can happen is my Monzo account might get wiped out.

[nightjar]

On 17/11/2021 19:08, Michael Chare wrote: ...

I have the choice of switching to Mastercard or dusting off my Amex Card. Many years ago, a restaurant abroad didn't understand how to deal with card verification, with the result that my card was suspended for a couple of days. Since then, I have never relied upon having a single card supplier.

[Richard]

Hey, I'm for brexit, but nothing wrong with those two 'directives'. Unless you happen to be Visa.

[NY]

My parents were on holiday in Austria and had a big meal at a restaurant which displayed the Visa symbol. When Dad came to pay with his Barclaycard (Visa) he was met with "Was ist das?" It turned out that a German/Austrian credit card (which the restaurant did accept) used the Visa symbol, but this was not part of the Visa system (which they did not). The restaurant had little choice but to let him go without paying (they checked with his hotel so they knew where he was staying), and he had to make a special journey into Innsbruck to withdraw some cash in Schillings so he could pay the restaurant. The Visa symbol had been removed from the restaurant door by the time he got there...

[Jeff Layman]

I had a somewhat similar experience in a medium-sized town in New England about 20 years ago. We were at an Inn for a couple of days, and when I came to pay found they didn't accept *any* credit cards. This was the USA in 1999! We had to go into town and use our debit cards to their cash limit, with a top-up with the credit cards to get enough cash to pay. The owner of the Inn said that the guide book we'd used was incorrect, as it said it did take credit cards.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I was looking for metal racking shelves so ended up at BigDUG.

They were advertising the same item on their site, Amazon and eBay, however their eBay listing was the cheapest including delivery - so I went with that.

Amazon has a price premium. Sometimes. Sometimes (rarer) not.

Onbuy looked good a few months ago, but seems their web team has lost control of their item categorisations.

Try searching 'Audio Amplifiers & Preamps' and ye get food supplements and products aimed at babies.

[Tricky Dicky]

I found the opposite, tying to get by with just cash was very difficult. We overnighted in a motel in Washington, I presented my credit card plus a discount voucher and was checked in immediately. A woman beside me checking in at the same time but paying cash ended up prepaying full whack no discounts and then having to pay cash deposits for anything removable eg. TV remote, towels etc. She ended coughing up about four times what I was paying.

Richard

[alan_m]

Don't assume that credit/debit card usage is the same abroad as in the UK but I've I've seen Americans come unstuck using cards in the UK with a public convenience in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. The only way to gain entry was a 20p fee payable by contactless transaction. None of their cards were contactless!

My brother who was a merchant seaman has to carry both visa and mastercard as in some countries he visited one type of card wouldn't be widely accepted.

[Max Demian]

I have a BoS VISA credit card. (Used to be affiliated to MyTravel.)

[Max Demian]

So did I, but I didn't use the MasterCard one much so they amalgamated the two. Later they stopped issuing to MC ones, which is probably why they did it with yours.

[newshound]

FWIW Amazon do an "Own Brand" Mastercard that you can use. They did not mention this in the email I received, but it was in the Guardian article. I ordered one last night.

[newshound]

Ebay is sometimes cheaper for "consumables" but Amazon normally wins hands down on hardware. Amazon do their own Mastercard, I just ordered one. It's convenient to use a credit card with them because if I need something bigger like a washing machine I don't have to check what my minimum current account balance is going to be in the next month or so.

[Andrew]

Are there any restrictions for these two cards that make the provider very little , if any money out of you though ?.

[Andrew]

It isn't that many years when holding a visa and a mastercard credit card was 'necessary' in the UK. Germans classically do not use credit cards (AFAIK), much preferring cash.

[newshound]

I thought I was going to be stuck at Baltimore Washington International in 1988 when the "limo", actually a people carrier that was booked to take me to my hotel wouldn't accept either a card or a $100 bill for the $15 fare. Luckily the nice people at some sort of bank in the terminal would swap one for two 50's. OTOH it was a novel experience for me at the time to be able to direct-dial home to confirm my return flight time just by sticking a UK credit card into the phone.

[Sn!pe]

I'm sure that Monzo would like to tempt me into borrowing from them! I use that card strictly as a pre-loaded charge card at no cost to me. I'm not aware of restrictions on it, except that replacement of lost, damaged or compromised cards attracts a fee. I use it with Apple Pay too, as well as by itself.

The Amazon Mastercard credit card is for Amazon purchases (also others) so I guess there's some sort of subsidy from Amazon to New Day, if not just merchant charges in the ordinary way. I settle the full balance each month by direct debit on the Monzo account so there is no interest payable by me. I'm not aware of restrictions on the Amazon card except that it won't work on Apple Pay. The big advantage is the consumer protection that comes with a credit card, of course.

[Fredxx]

I would prefer market forces prevail.

Where a surcharge represent the actual costs of processing an order should be given directly to the customer, rather than being subsidised by other forms of payment as it is currently.

Visa love the current situation. If Visa payments attracted a bigger surcharge, I would consider using my MasterCard instead and Visa would lose out.

Therefore one directive created the need for the other. If there was a surcharge, there would be little need for a cap.

It also doesn't help that Amazon, in this case, are not based in the UK, so no cap applied.

[Theo]

The reason for the law was that market forces did prevail. It led to the likes of Ryanair taking the p*ss, charging something like £10 credit card surcharge, per person, per single ticket, which ended up with a family of four paying £80 credit card fees. Since there was often no choice (from airports A to B there was no other airline flying the direct route) people had to pay the fee - ie Ryanair exploited their market power.

It wouldn't have been so bad if it was the actual cost of using the card, but since that's a commercial secret it's impossible to find out what has been negotiated.

Theo