Amazon UK vs Visa + Amazon in Talks to Switch Co-Brand Card to Mastercard From Visa

[longtimelurker]

Earlier thread on this

Amazon UK vs Visa + Amazon in Talks to Switch Co-B... - myFICO® Forums - 6443064

[M_Smart007]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

Earlier thread on this

Amazon UK vs Visa + Amazon in Talks to Switch Co-B... - myFICO® Forums - 6443064

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Thanks LTL, I usually read " Credit in the News " but somehow missed that one

[longtimelurker]

Update:  Amazon suspends the plan for now.

Amazon halts plan to block UK Visa credit cards amid talks - BBC News

[Adkins]

UK customers can go back to using Visa .   

"The deal means Amazon customers in the U.K. can continue using Visa credit cards, as previously announced by the two companies.

Amazon will also drop a 0.5% surcharge on Visa credit card transactions in Singapore and Australia, which it introduced last year.

Amazon has been piling pressure on Visa to lower its fees, signaling growing frustration from retailers over the costs associated with major card networks."

[gdale6]

Yeah well you get to pay to play, just because you are Amazon doesnt give you the right to lower fees. Pretty clear to me now as to all the talk of Chase losing their credit card portfolio.

[LADave]

It's not exactly clear what the outcome was for Amazon and Visa (the  linked article is pretty vague about it). But merchants smaller than Amazon have negotiated with companies like Visa and American Express for smaller fees.

Costco took only AMEX credit cards until 2017, and they now only take Visa. The swipe fee they pay Visa is only 0.4 percent(!) - way less than the rewards that most of their customers receive for those Visa cards, including the non-Costco-branded Citibank cards. (https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/619285/why-costco-only-accepts-visa-credit-cards)

Having 79 million customers gives Costco tons of leverage, and there are people who keep at least one Visa card because they want to use a credit card at Costco. If Amazon had gone to either not taking Visa in the U.S. or charging a surcharge, you can be sure that many would have decided to carry at least one non-Visa card for the same reason.

[Red1Blue]

I think the issue here is lot more complicated than Visa and Amazon involved. This issue is only in UK and it started when UK left EU and several changes happend. I am not an expert on EU and UK issues but the dispute Amazon and Visa had it over the users located in UK.

[Anonymous]

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@gdale6 wrote:

Yeah well you get to pay to play, just because you are Amazon doesnt give you the right to lower fees. Pretty clear to me now as to all the talk of Chase losing their credit card portfolio.

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No sin in flexing your competitive corporate muscle and that certainly does give you the right to lower fees if you can. Some one is going to make money (may not be the consumer) so it will be someone for sure.

My sympathy for Visa is only equal to my sympathy for MasterCard ... NONE!