Amazon Postpone Visa Ban

As many of you will have seen on the news in recent months, top retailer Amazon were planning to stop the use of UK Visa cards on their platform from 19 January 2022. Many of us were unsure of how this would impact us if it went through, or if it would affect our use of the site. 

Here at MoneyMagpie, we previously offered some financial help on what this means for us. However, as of 17th January 2022, Amazon have announced their plans to postpone the ban. This comes just two days before the action was due to be implemented.

Below, we explain what the changes would mean for you as an Amazon customer, as well as why the plans have been postponed.

• Why was the change going to happen?
• What would it mean for you?
• Why has it been postponed?

Why was the change going to happen?

Amazon says Visa’s fees are overinflated and block low prices for their customers.

Visa, however, retaliated by saying that its charges are competitive. They also suggested their fees shouldn’t make that much of a difference to prices. They proceeded to accuse Amazon of being ill-advised to place such a restriction on payment choices for their customers. 

What would it mean for you?

If the postponed plans ultimately go ahead in the future, it would only impact you if you use a UK Visa card to buy on Amazon, and do not have an alternative payment method. The original ban on UK Visa cards was due to come in from 19 January 2022 onwards.

Originally, Amazon were going to require customers to update their payment to a bank debit card. If a customer had no alternative payment method? Then they may not have been able to make purchases on Amazon from 19th January 2022 onwards.

Unfortunately, this would mean that customers would no longer be covered by credit card company insurance for larger purchases, something that currently exists in case any problems arise.

Why has it been postponed?

Amazon and Visa had before 19th January 2022 to come to an agreement which negated the necessity to remove UK Visa cards as a payment option. If they were able to come to a mutual decision, the change wouldn’t come into effect.

Just 48 hours before the change was to come into place, Amazon announced the change will not take place. They are working with Visa to come up with a “potential solution” that allows people to keep using their credit cards. Amazon announced the postponement in a letter to customers, as well as in a press statement.

However, no information was given about what this solution might be and what it means for customers in the future. For the time being, Visa has confirmed the news, announcing that “Amazon customers can continue to use Visa cards on Amazon.co.uk after January 19, while we work closely together to reach an agreement.”

It looks like UK Visa card holders survive another day, and can continue being customers at Amazon.