Amazon WARNING: Millions of customers will see their Visa card stop working this month

If you own a Visa credit card, you won’t be able to make any purchases from Amazon in a matter of days. Yes, Amazon is once again warning its customers to head to their account settings and remove all Visa credit card from their account before it’s too late. In November, Amazon UK announced that it would stop accepting Visa as a valid payment method from January 19, 2022. And as this date fast approaches, Amazon has emailed affected customers, letting them know if a Visa credit card is linked to their monthly Amazon Prime membership fees, they need to change it to an alternate payment method – or lose access to unlimited next-day delivery, Prime Video, Prime Music, unlimited photo back-up and more. New orders placed with a Visa card will be rejected too.

In an email sent out to customers a few days ago, Amazon UK warned: “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.

“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.”

While Amazon won’t be accepting Visa credit cards from January 19 2022, the retailer will accept all debit cards (including Visa debit cards) as well as non-Visa credit cards such as MasterCard, American Express and EuroCard.

You can also use one card to pay for your Prime subscription, and another to pay for other purchases by default – if you’d like to spread out payments between different cards.

When Amazon announced the decision to stop accepting Visa credit cards back in November, the retailer said this was due to high transaction fees associated with Visa credit cards.

At the time Amazon said: “The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers.”

While Visa said the decision – which left “nobody” a winner – would limit consumer choice. The financial services giant said: “UK shoppers can use their Visa debit and credit cards at Amazon UK today and throughout the holiday season. 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.”

As an incentive, Amazon has told Prime customers that have a Visa credit card as their default payment method that they will give them £20 off their next purchase if they choose another card as their default payment option. Non-Prime members have received a similar offer, but will get £10 off instead.

To update your payment settings and get your money off voucher, click here to be directed to the Amazon page where you can change your Prime membership payment method.

If you use a Visa credit card to pay for any subscriptions then you can also change this on this page.

For some people, a Visa credit card may be the only credit card they have in their wallet or purse. If that’s the case you can click here to get an Amazon Mastercard or Amazon American Express card.