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Amazon have they’re own card with MasterCard don’t they? Also, Brexit and fees no longer capped and Amazon trying to drive down visas commission.
Amazon have they’re own card with MasterCard don’t they?
In which case - feels a bit anti-competitive? Depends on whether Visa are being dicks I suppose. Or, more likely, whether Amazon or Visa are being the bigger dicks.
“It’s a pity both sides can’t lose.”
-Henry Kissinger
Indeed.
However, there is only going to be one winner here: Amazon customers (minus a tiny proportion) will just switch to a different payment method, but Visa will lose 100% of their Amazon business overnight. Visa will back-down within the week I recon.
Or this is like PayPal all over again… and Amazon are narrowing payment method choice because they are confident their scale means they don’t have to deal with anyone they don’t want to.
Lots of Banks changing their debit cards from Visa to Mastercard
I reckon this might end up not happening, in the meantime I’m happy to take £20 of their money for changing
£40 gift card if you sign up for the Amazon Premier MasterCard
£40 gift card if you sign up for the Amazon Premier MasterCard
It is but scroll down to the reviews section, doesn't look good.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Platinum-Mastercard/dp/B01LSOD0ZI
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Can't help but think that the underlying problem here is the stupid Payment Services Directive which makes it illegal for retailers to differentiate price based on payment method. So if a card provider hikes their fees, your choice is a) suck it and let other payment methods subsidise it b) stop accepting that payment method.
If you're Amazon, threatening (b) is a workable negotiation tactic, and will probably win you even more of a price advantage over your competitors. Most companies can't afford to stop doing (b), and the threat of doing so won't count for much.
The sensible way to deal with excessive fees it just to pass them on to the consumer: "sure, we can accept your Visa card, but there's a surcharge to cover Visa's fees". That would generate market pressure to keep fees in check. Sadly, we made that illegal, so as it stands, there's no incentive for them to keep their fees down (at least until Amazon called their bluff).
I'd still go with the main issue being Amazon's insistence on running UK payments through another country. Its like me complaining if EasyJet put up their prices because I had decided to commute by plane to work.
But yes I also agree the payments directive for not charging for different payment methods is daft. It protects 0.0001% of the population with no choice by penalising the rest of us that do.
I’ve been places where handling cash is such a faff they’ll give you a discount for using a credit card.
Either out of the way places or places like jewellers where they’d rather not have thousands in hopefully genuine notes kicking around.
So they're dropping VISA as it's too expensive, but sticking with AMEX which is even more expensive...riiiight.
Also, I'm happy to support the willy shaped rocket development fund. It just wish it were more obvious when I were doing so and that I had a say in who they lob into orbit...and maybe if they should be allowed to come back down again.
sticking with AMEX which is even more expensive…riiiight.
Amex is cheaper than other card networks in certain circumstances. Particularly if you're messing around with x-border stuff on visa
I thought AMEX was a general fee of 2.4-4.7% whereas VISA was about 1.9-2.37% for the majority of transactions?
https://enterprise-confluence.aexp.com/confluence/display/GRM/Route+flows
that may be the case for small merchants, but when you're pushing multiple billions through a card network, I imagine there's room for more negociation
Benpinnick has given the answer a few times - they're now outside of EU interchange regulation (yay Brexit) and Amex and MC both have cobrands with Amazon as so completely different economics.
Btw Amex stopped charging the high fees for small merchants a few years ago, if you're paying more then you should probably talk them.
Well, someone caved it seems.
I wonder who blinked?
I was not prepared to change my credit card just for Amazon, also trying not to use Amazon as much.
I wonder who blinked?
Be surprised if it was Amazon...
Haha. I got £40 out of them for nowt then..
also trying not to use Amazon as much.
My Amazon account has one purchase in the last 2+ years.
*engage over optimist mode*
I do wonder if the mega-corp online shopping may dwindle as we look to shop in person and local more?
*/disengage over optimist mode*
I think it was inevitable that some sort of agreement would be reached, but just in case I decided to use a different card on Saturday to get £20 from Amazon while I still could. That became £40 for reasons that aren't entirely clear. Unless Amazon have a spectacularly bad deal from Visa I can't imagine how many years it would take for this to be cost effective if an agreement hadn't been reached, and as it is, it must be a straight loss. Still, they can afford it.