Fees Face-Off: Amazon To Stop Accepting Visa Credit Cards

Online retail giant Amazon says it will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. 

Gatekeepers News reports that Amazon in an extraordinary face-off over transaction fees has announced that it will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. from January 19.

The online retail giant explained that although the high credit card transaction fees prompted the decision, Visa debit cards would still be accepted.

The decision could however spread to the U.S. where Amazon is reviewing its co-branded credit card and talking to other potential partners.

As a means of compensation, Amazon is offering gift card sweeteners to affected customers to apologise for the inconvenience, offering $27 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to an alternative payment method, and $13.50 for other customers, if they have a Visa card as their only or default payment method on their account.

Amazon while announcing this stated that “The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers.”

It pointed to the myriad technological advances and noted that costs should be going down over time but rather they “continue to stay high or even rise”.

In reaction to this, Visa said it was “very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future”.

Visa’s share price slumped nearly 7% after the announcement but it has recovered a little of its lost ground in trading so far today.

Although the post-Christmas deadline date gives both sides room for negotiation, the public nature of the dispute and the scale of both retailer and payment provider make this a clash of the titans.