Millions of Amazon customers will have their Visa cards declined in January 2022.
The online shopping giant - which serves almost 200 million consumers around the world - made the decision to stop accepting Visa credit cards as a payment method in the UK due to "high fees" and sent out a warning to customers reminding them to update their personal payment information on their accounts.
The email read: "Please update your Amazon Prime payment method. Starting 19 January 2022, we will unfortunately no longer accept any Visa credit cards issued in the UK, due to the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions."
The retailer will still be accepting Visa debit cards from 19.01.2022,as well as non-Visa credit cards such as MasterCard, American Express and EuroCard, but urged Visa credit users to update their details in order to continue seamlessly using their services.
The email continued: ""Our records indicate that you currently use a Visa credit card to pay for your Prime Membership. To ensure you continue to have access to unlimited fast delivery, endless streaming with Prime Video, millions of songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Prime and the many other Prime benefits you enjoy, you’ll need to update your payment card."
When Amazon made the initial announcement back in November 2021, the company claimed that Visa credit "continued to be an obstacle" but Visa later hit back, claiming that the move was not in the best interests of anyone, noting that they were "disappointed" in the tech giant.
In a statement, a Visa spokesperson said at the time: "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, so our cardholders can use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022."
