Amazon To Stop Accepting UK Visa Credit Cards From January

(RTTNews) - e-Commerce giant Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. from January 19, 2022, according to the "accepted payment methods" on Amazon's UK website. Amazon has blamed the action on the high fees Visa charges for processing each credit card transactions.

The online retailer revealed that Amazon.co.uk will continue accepting Visa debit cards, and any Visa credit card issued outside of the UK. Only Visa credit cards issued in the UK will no longer be accepted. It has already notified its customers in the U.K. on the issue in an email.

Though the U.K. customers of Amazon can continue to use their Visa credit cards for their holiday season purchases, they will have to switch to Mastercard or AMEX credit cards prior to the January deadline. Amazon already has a partnership with Mastercard and American Express in the U.K.

Visa has recently hiked the interchange fees on purchases using the Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. to 1.5 percent from the previous fees of 0.3 percent. Even Mastercard imposed a similar increase in interchange fees prior to Visa, but has not been blocked by Amazon.

A statement attributed to Amazon spokesperson said, "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."

Meanwhile, a Visa spokesperson said the company is disappointed that "Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future."

Visa also stated that it is working with Amazon on the issue to reach a resolution prior to the e-commerce giant imposing the ban on Visa credit card usage on the UK website for purchases.

This is an escalation of an ongoing tussle between Amazon and Visa for better payment terms. In the past few months, Amazon has begun to impose a surcharge on the use of a Visa credit card for purchases on their websites in Singapore and Australia in order to overcome the high fees charged by Visa.

In both Singapore and Australia, the retailer has offered customers gift cards in order to urge them to add alternative payment cards or methods in lieu of the Visa credit cards.