Amazon cuts off credit card payments? Official reversal is here

Amazon announced a shocking news earlier that it would cancel the VISA credit card payment function on its UK site! But recently, the official withdrew this decision. What is going on?

Amazon announced last month that it would stop accepting Visa credit card payments on its UK site from January 19. The reason Amazon gave was that Visa charged high fees for online shopping orders paid with this method. Visa also accused Amazon of "seriously disregarding consumer experience" and the two sides began to argue over fees. Last year, Amazon even charged an additional fee of 0.5% of the order amount for customers who used Visa to pay on its Australian site in order to put pressure on Visa. The suspension of Visa payments on the UK site is definitely one of the means of pressure.

But on Monday, Amazon changed its mind and announced that British consumers can continue to use Visa for payment after the 19th. Amazon said that it is discussing a new solution with Visa to meet the normal shopping needs of consumers. It is you who want to kick Visa out, and it is you who want Visa back. Why does Amazon keep making this fuss over and over again?

After the UK left the EU, problems also arose in the area of ​​credit card payments. The UK is no longer subject to the EU's cap on credit card fees, and credit card providers can choose to increase online payment fees. So after the UK officially left the EU, both MasterCard and Visa raised their fees. The company that was most affected by this should be Amazon, which has the largest online shopping volume. So Amazon and Visa are arguing over whether to increase fees.

Amazon and the credit card organizations have fallen out. It is not just that consumers cannot pay with credit cards, but sellers will also be affected. For example, the credit card bound when opening a store cannot be verified by visa, including the payment of backend fees.

Amazon has currently withdrawn its decision to block Visa on the UK site, but the 0.5% additional handling fee is still being charged on the Australian site. There is no guarantee that Amazon will make more additional charging changes in order to disgust Visa, and may even impose the charges on us sellers.

However, industry insiders also analyzed that despite its huge influence, Amazon cannot completely reject the consumer market brought by Visa in terms of payment. Therefore, these operations of Amazon are more of an extreme pressure on Visa, just like Trump's trade war with China, which is impossible to break up fundamentally, and at most it is just to accumulate ammunition for the next negotiation.

Regarding the current battle and tug-of-war between Amazon and Visa, we still need to make some necessary preparations, such as preparing some credit cards from other companies just in case. If Amazon implements a policy against credit cards, we must promptly remind consumers on the product page, etc.