Amazon Will Stop Accepting UK Issued VISA Credit Cards in 2022

Amazon will stop accepting VISA Credit Cards from the UK on January 19th 2022

Amazon has started to email their customers to tell them that they will no longer accept VISA credit cards issued in the UK after January 19th 2022. This change does not affect VISA Debit cards, and VISA credit cards issued outside of the UK are currently unaffected by this change. 

Amazon customers will still be able to use credit cards issued by VISA’s competitors in the UK after January 19th, such as MasterCard and Amex. In recent months, MasterCard has been gaining increased adoption from UK banks, with many formalising moves from VISA to MasterCard over the past year. 

The move to ditch VISA’s UK-issued credit cards by Amazon stems from VISA charging hefty fees to process transactions. In a comment to Bloomberg, a VISA spokesperson has said the following. 

    We are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins,

We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon, and we continue to work toward a resolution.  

Currently, VISA is the UK’s leading credit and debit card provider, but MasterCard has quickly started to eat away at VISA’s market share. Earlier this year, NatWest agreed to switch to MasterCard, which would move 16 million consumers and business customers from VISA to MasterCard. This agreement applies to all NatWest Group banks, including Ulster Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Similar deals have also been made with Santander UK and HSBC. 

  
While VISA claims that they are “working on a resolution” to their issues with Amazon, it remains unclear if any changes will be made before Amazon’s January 19th deadline, or if any changes made by VISA will result in Amazon lifting its soon-to-be imposed restrictions on UK-issued VISA credit cards. 

What’s clear today is that VISA’s grip on the UK credit/debit card market is waning, and losing access to Amazon will only loosen VISA’s grip on the market further. 

You can join the discussion on Amazon’s plan to stop accepting UK VISA credit cards on the OC3D Forums.