Amazon UK to continue accepting Visa credit cards

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jan 18, 2022

Online retail giant Amazon looks set to resolve its feud with credit card giant Visa over processing fees following a six-week who-will-blink-first standoff.

After claiming Visa’s charges for processing card transactions were too high, Amazon said in November it would stop accepting payments made with UK-issued Visa credit cards on 19 January. But in an 11th-hour decision, it has instead decided to work with the payments company on a potential agreement.

Had the ban gone ahead, it would have affected millions of consumers who use a Visa credit card while Amazon Prime would also have lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers as payments lapsed.

But in an email sent to customers, Amazon has said it was "working closely with Visa on a potential solution”. However, the message did not say that the dispute had been resolved for good, adding: “Should we make any changes related to Visa credit cards, we will give you advance notice.”

Visa also released a statement, saying: "Amazon customers can continue to use Visa cards on the Amazon [platform] after 19 January while we work closely together to reach an agreement".

It had said in November when Amazon announced the ban that it was "very disappointed that Amazon was threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future”.

The online retailer was said to have been particularly annoyed at a rise in so-called interchange fees, additional cross-border costs  which it believes have risen five-fold since Brexit.

Such fees, payable by Amazon itself or merchants on its platform, would squeeze margins — or raise prices if passed on to customers.