Amazon is most likely to stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the United Kingdom. The decision to drop Visa as a partner on its co-branded credit card in the United States comes as a dispute over payments has intensified in the recent past. The e-commerce giant is reportedly in talks with several other payment networks including Mastercard Inc. The company has termed it as a regular process for reviewing its agreement for co-branded credit card agreement. However, Visa has declined to make any comment on the development. American Express and Mastercard have refused to say anything on the matter.
Amazon has said that it would stop taking payments from Visa from January 19, next year. This means that Visa credit cards issues in England would become useless for shopping with Amazon. “The charges applicable for such transaction should go down over the time and with the advancements in technology. However, things are going in the exact opposite direction. Also, they even continue to stay high and ever rise,” the company said in a statement. It is pertinent to mention that Amazon has introduced surcharges on customers who are credit cards of Visa in Australia and Singapore. Amazon cited rising fees as the reason behind its decision. This has deteriorated relations between the two firms.
After Britain decided to exit the European Union, the fees charged by card issuers in England are no longer in place. This means that providers are under no restriction to hike charges. Visa had started imposing a charge of 1.5 percent of the transaction value for each credit card transaction. The charges are applicable on such transactions that are made online or over the phone between the United Kingdom and European Union. Visa also started charging 1.15 per for debit card transactions. This is significantly higher than 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent respectively that was charged earlier. The average processing fees for credit cards range between USD 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent.
