Online retail giant, Amazon, have announced that they will no longer be accepting Visa cards in the UK from January 2022. 

This will come as a major blow to not only Visa, but the millions of customers who rely on Amazon to purchase their products. Amazon say the main reason for this change, is due to high credit card transaction fees; however, Debit cards will still be accepted. 

Amazon said  costs should be going down over time due to advances in technology, "but instead they continue to stay high or even rise". Amazon continued: "The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers."

As millions of customers shop on Amazon 24/7, this will somewhat force customers to find an alternative. Amazon have become the biggest and most reliable online retailer for a number of years’ and this move will leave customers disappointed. 

As Amazon looks to win over customers following this move, they are offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to a different payment method, and £10 for other customers.

Some encouragement for customers who are not favour with this change, is Visa saying they are working with Amazon to resolve this change because they have “a long-standing relationship” with the online retailer. 

Despite claiming high credit card transaction fees were the reason for the change, Amazon were not willing to reveal exactly how much Visa charges the retailer to process transactions made on credit cards. 

With this major change set to shake the Ecommerce world, will we see more competition in the industry?