Amazon have stepped back and reversed the Visa cancellation on their platform. As of the 19th of January, Amazon had previously announced (with several reminders sent to customers) that the Visa cancellation would end acceptance of Visa credit cards on Amazon due to high payment transaction fees.
Visa had always said that they were trying to to work toward a resolution to enable their cards to continue to be accepted on Amazon, but just six days ago Amazon were still emailing customers to remind them of the Visa cancellation about to take place this week. Now today, the 17th of January and just two days before the deadline, the following email is pinging it’s way into Amazon customers’ in boxes:
The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19. We are working closely with Visa on a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk.
Should we make any changes related to Visa credit cards, we will give you advance notice. Until then, you can continue to use Visa credit cards, debit cards, Mastercard, American Express, and Eurocard as you do today.
Amazon email, 17th Jan 2022
Visa and MasterCard increased their UK-EU interchange fees this year due to the EU fee cap for the UK being removed after Brexit. Amazon expressed their disapproval towards Visa applying such high fees. One might well look at the announcement of the Visa cancellation and it’s reinstatement before customers were impacted and think that there was a certain amount of posturing to assist in negotiating a preferential deal. A credit card processor the size of Amazon would certainly make a company think twice, although in this instance we don’t know who blinked first – It’s possible Amazon simply backed down and equally possible that Visa bent a little and gave them a more acceptable deal.
The good news is that today’s reversal means merchants will no longer be left wondering if their customers will be able to purchase from their websites through Amazon Payments, and you’ll still be able to make purchases on Amazon, Amazon Business and fund your Prime or other Amazon services with your Visa credit card and for most customers, that’s all we care about.
