Amazon to ban UK Visa cards next year due to ‘high fees’

Visa debit cards and other credit cards, including Mastercard and American Express, will still be accepted, as will Visa credit cards issued outside of the UK.

Amazon blamed “the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions” for its decision.

Visa claims Amazon is “threatening to restrict consumer choice”.

Amazon acknowledged that the change would be “inconvenient” for some customers. A spokesman 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.

“As a result of Visa’s continued high cost 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 innovating on behalf of customers to add and promote faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment options to our stores across the globe.”

It is understood Amazon is angry at a rise in so-called interchange fees – additional cross-border costs – which it believes have risen five-fold since Brexit.

Amazon declines to say how much Visa charges to process credit card transactions. It has been reported that on average Visa takes less than 0.1 percent of the value of a purchase.

Visa said: “We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins.”