Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK in January, the company announced. Amazon says it is too expensive to process payments on the cards to support them. Amazon will continue to accept debit cards from Visa as well as credit cards from Mastercard and American Express. Amazon said in an email to customers that the new rules will go into effect on January 19. Online giants complained that technology advancements should have reduced payment processing fees, but instead, they were increasing.
“The expense of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses attempting to provide the best prices,” the company said in a statement.
With technological advances, these costs should be declining over time, but instead, they remain high or even increase.
“Due to Visa’s high costs of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of January 19, 2022.
“With the rapidly changing payments landscape around the world, we will continue to innovate to add faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment options to our stores worldwide.”
Visa spokeswoman said the company was disappointed and hoped to resolve the issue before the deadline passed. The company said that Amazon UK customers can use their Visa debit and credit cards today and throughout the holiday season.
“We are very disappointed that Amazon plans to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work towards a solution so that our cardholders can use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions by January 2022.”