Amazon VISA Surcharge News
From PaymentDive August 2021 — Amazon takes on Visa by imposing a surcharge in area and leaving open the possibility of extending it elsewhere to fight what it calls “Visa’s high cost of payments.”
In Brief:
- Singapore Amazon customers are the first to see 0.5% surcharge on VISA payment use
- From Amazon — To avoid this surcharge, we encourage you to use a debit or non-Visa credit card as the default payment method in your account,” said the notice.
- No comment from VISA
- Colorado passed law allowing merchants to assess surcharge covering VISA charges — Specifically it eliminates ban on surcharges
- Data shows the costs for collection of fees has gone down while the fees have gone up, thus becoming a burden
- In related news — AMC Theaters now accepts Bitcoin
Excerpt:
Retail giant Amazon is taking on card behemoth Visa with plans to impose a half percent surcharge on all Visa credit card transactions in Singapore starting next month in its first ever such surcharge.
“Due to Visa’s high cost of payments, beginning 15 September 2021, Amazon will apply 0.5% surcharge to purchases made using Visa credit cards on Amazon.sg,” the company said in a notice today to its Singapore site customers. “To avoid this surcharge, we encourage you to use a debit or non-Visa credit card as the default payment method in your account,” said the notice, which was provided by Amazon.
