Amazon BAN All VISA Payments 😮

Wow, this is huge news. Amazon have just announced that in January they will stop all Visa credit card payments on their site. Holy shit. I do love it when big brands start scrapping. Well, I love it and I hate it. There's a stark warning that I'm going to share with you in this video, which I think you must, um, we must take the lessons from this. So let me tell you what's going on, and then let me share with you the warnings and the lessons. And also, please let me know what you think. So breaking news in the last 12 hours is that Amazon, the biggest retailer in the world, has got its willy out and put it on the table to, um, Visa, slapped its face, and Amazon is banning all Visa payments, Visa credit, not Visa debit, but Visa credit, um, from the 19th of January. Holy shit. Now I'll tell you what's actually, um, happening in reality, but I think this is a great lesson to us all. We mustn't be reliant on one supplier. If we are reliant on one supplier and our supplier goes banned— now have you noticed recently that some of the big players have been fighting Apple and Facebook have been fighting big time. Apple have been making it really hard for Facebook ads. Yahoo recently made it really difficult for email deliverability. So big Black Friday, big, um, ability for many big commercial companies to do millions and billions in revenue, and Yahoo making it really difficult to receive emails. Um, the Apple have been scrapping with a big few companies. Apple and Facebook, big scraps recently. But anyway, let me tell you the breaking news and then let's discuss what it means and let me know what you think in the comments. But Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK from the 19th of January, the online retail giant has said. It said the move was due to high credit card transaction fees but said Visa debit cards would still be accepted. Visa said it was very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. This could cost Visa billions of pounds. Billions. So I can imagine Visa are a little bit more than very disappointed. Like, if you are on the board at Visa that could just wipe billions of revenue off you overnight. I think you're going to be more than disappointed. I think you could be scared. Please hit the share button. We need to get this news out. There are some big lessons in here. Amazon said the cost of accepting credit card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers. The online retailer said costs should be going down over time, due to advances in technology, but instead they continue to stay high or even raise. So on the one hand, this could be a fair point. If Visa have not been dropping their costs over time, or Visa have been increasing their costs, or Visa haven't been improving their services, you could argue, you know, money loves speed, money hates friction, payments should be getting cheaper or easier or quicker or better. And if Amazon is right and Visa has not been improving its speed or its value or reducing its price or increasing its value, then there could be an argument for that. Now, the story does continue to increase in intrigue and interest. Michael has just said here Visa market cap declined by $6 billion. I bet their share price has gone through the floor. This is ridiculously bad news for Visa, um, but it's also a show of how you can't be reliant on one supplier. However, let me find this. There's something about MasterCard here. Stay with me while I find the MasterCard bit. All right, so, um, an Amazon spokesperson said the dispute was to do with pretty egregious price rises from Visa over a number of years with no additional value to its service. To be fair, Visa should not be having outrageously high fees. Um, you know, PayPal and cryptos and other forms of money have come in and disrupted payments. Should be getting quicker, easier, and cheaper because over time things should get quicker and easier and cheaper. So I've got here, for example, a 16GB memory card. What would that be? £10? Well, 10 years ago you'd get a 500MB memory card for £50. So over time, because of Moore's Law and technological advancement, you should be able to get more for less. That should be the way it is. And if Visa have not been giving us more for less, then maybe you could argue they deserve to be disrupted. Maybe you could argue. But let me share the other side of the argument. In a moment. Okay, right. Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to an alternative payment method, and £10 for other customers. Holy shit! Now that is laying the willy out on the table. Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa. So there maybe is an ulterior motive there. Or that is just a double F you to Visa. Visa has said in a statement it was very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future. When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins. Uh, Amazon wins, uh, Visa loses. Yeah, so Michael has said this is hugely aggressive. It is a massive aggressive move if you think about it. What is there? MasterCard, Visa, Amex. Amex have high charges, they've already been ousted out of a lot of, um, payment platforms. Um, yes, so maybe Amazon have done a little deal on the side with MasterCard, who knows. Let me know what you think in the comments. Please hit the share button as well because this is massive news, and when these big, big massive Goliath companies start fighting with each other. We have to learn the lessons, I believe. Don't rely on one supplier. Look at how the market changes. Make sure you evolve in the market. Blockbuster refused to do online streaming. Blockbuster died. Netflix are now huge. So, um, is there something that Visa could learn from here? All right, um, Visa said it had a long-standing relationship with Amazon and that it was trying to resolve the situation so customers would be able to use Visa credit cards with Amazon UK. Amazon declined to say how much Visa charges the retailer to process the transactions made on credit cards, which is interesting. Why wouldn't Amazon come and say how much the fees are? Hmm. Uh, Visa also declined to comment, though it claimed that on average it takes less than 0.1% of the value of a purchase. Amazon and Visa said any changes in fees have nothing to do with Brexit. Both Visa and its rival Mastercard have raised the so-called interchange fee on cross-border transactions between businesses in the UK and the European Union following Brexit. The dispute between Amazon and Visa is to do with the fees the credit card company charges Amazon for its services in the UK. Let me know what you think about this breaking news. Amazon, from January 19th, are removing all UK Visa credit card services. You will no longer be able to pay on Amazon via Visa credit card. This could really hurt Visa. Could Visa be a massive casualty of this? Um, Michael has said the market cap's gone down by $16 billion. What's it done to the share price? Holy shit! But I want to share some lessons at the end of this video. Okay, Amazon is also considering dropping Visa as a partner for its US co-branded credit card. It is in talks with payment networks including MasterCard, American Express, and Visa as part of what it calls a standard process. Now, to be fair, we should have fair competition. So if Visa or Amex, our fees are high and Mastercard and PayPal, etc., and fees are low, there should be a competitive element, I believe, in this. This is a free market. This keeps prices low and fair and not high. Okay, there's some interesting analysis here, by the way. So this analysis is by Kevin Peachey, personal finance correspondent. This is breaking news on the BBC website. This row between two corporate titans is now being played out in full view of their customers. Amazon says Visa fees are excessive and an obstacle to low prices for consumers. Visa says its fees are competitive, has minimal effect on prices, and that nobody wins when the choice is restricted. Well, they would say that because Visa obviously are not going to win if they can't have their services on Amazon. Whether or not this row is about fees or whether this is just a smokescreen is largely irrelevant to consumers using these services. They just know they may have to change the way they pay on Amazon. Yet the timing is significant. These messages to customers hit home harder when people are regularly using Amazon for Christmas shopping. Black Friday is coming soon as well. Black Friday, Christmas, is there something going on here? Who knows? Okay, James Andrews, senior personal finance editor at comparison website Money.co.uk, said the move will comes as a blow to the millions of Britons who use Visa credit cards, including Barclaycard and HSBC customers. With American Express also rejected by many UK retailers, that means people looking for rewards on their spending or trying to split the cost of shopping with a 0% purchase card on Amazon will effectively be forced to choose a Mastercard. Hmm, so what handshake deal have Mastercard and Amazon done behind the scenes? Um, when a big retailer comes and makes a big move like that, which Apple have done recently, Facebook have done recently, um, it makes you realize it doesn't matter how big a company you are, you are always at risk if you rely on one major supplier. Get this, this, get this, holy shit, um, reward cards that are offered by Amazon are powered by MasterCard. Let me say that again. Reward cards that are offered by Amazon are powered by MasterCard. So have MasterCard and Amazon done a deal behind the scenes? Amazon rewards card powered by MasterCard. Sorry, Visa, bye. Holy shit. MasterCard's executive has chimed in here, and Ken's, and said it's very important that customers have choice and have the widest variety of ability to pay when whether that's through cards from their bank accounts or cash. And remember that it's never the consumer that pays the fees. Hmm, really? Do MasterCard really want fair competition, or do MasterCard want exclusivity with Amazon? Can't blame them for that. I wouldn't blame them for that. Okay, right. Um, yeah, this is all kicking off. There's loads of people talking about it on Twitter. Um, there's the Federation of Small Businesses have got involved, right? So let me know what you think in the comments. Breaking news then: Amazon to stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK from 19th of January. It will still accept debit cards but not credit cards. So right here, here are the lessons I think from this. You must never rely on one supplier. You must never, number one. Number 2, you must always try and evolve and innovate and keep your prices fair and your value improving. So for example, this SanDisk card, I don't know how much it is, a fiver, a tenner, a twenty, whatever, and it's 16 gigabytes. But 10 years ago, a SanDisk card would have been 100 megabytes and it would have been £50 or £100. So over time, you have to improve your products and services and innovate and you have to keep your prices fair. And if you up your prices, you need to up your value. Now, Amazon's argument is that Visa's fares are egregious, egregious, outrageous, and they haven't offered an evolved extra value over time. Now, whether that's fair or not, that's Amazon's argument for getting rid of Visa. And if Visa would have evolved and would have offered more value and products and services in exchange for the fees, then maybe they wouldn't have been booted out by Amazon. Um, now of course Visa would say their fees are fair, and Visa would say that you have to have choice. But if Amazon had kicked out Masterclass, would Visa be upset about that? No, they wouldn't. They would not. Just to clarify, this is debit cards are excluded. It's only UK and credit cards. So there'll still be Visa debit and there'll still be Visa credit in America, though they are looking to Uh, maybe change that as well. It says here in the BBC article, never rely on one supplier, always keep your prices fair and your product and service evolving. You know, Blockbuster, they're gone now. They were the main player in DVD rental, but they're gone because they didn't evolve, and Netflix evolved them out. Could this— could Visa be the next casualty? I mean, if anyone wants to do some research, what's their share price? Their share price must have plummeted. Michael said here they've lost $16 billion in market cap. I don't know that, but it's just what someone has said here, um, on my, um, feed. So let me know what you think in the feed. Do you think this opens up opportunity for cryptos? You know, um, cryptos, to be honest, um, are disruptive, but they're too slow. So people say, I know crypto payments are instantaneous, but but only 7% of people on the planet have a crypto wallet, I'm told. This was by Kevin Rose. So at the moment, cryptos are too slow. If cryptos become instantaneous and ubiquitous, then they could probably disrupt Visa, Mastercard, and other forms of payment. I can tell you our credit card fees are really freaking high, and when I look at all of our transactions and bank fees and credit card fees, we're often paying tens of thousands of pounds a month, maybe even— is it six figures yet? Maybe not, but in the high tens of thousands of pounds a month in bank charges and credit card fees. Like, is that really needed now? Is money just— is that a friction? So if someone can come in and make transactions faster and cheaper and give us better value products and services, then maybe Visa, MasterCard, Amex, maybe they get disrupted. Now there's also the consumer angle here. The consumer might lose out here because if they use a Visa credit card and they're shopping for Black Friday and for Christmas and they're relying on the 30 days free credit and they can't use Visa credit, then of course, you know, these two big goliaths fighting might actually end up hurting the consumer. Which has been raised as an issue on the Federal— Federation of Small Businesses, and also on, I think, um, the Money website. Let me just try and find it. Okay, wow. But, um, you must not rely on one supplier. You must evolve your products and services over time and ensure the fees are fair. Offer extra, extra benefits and products and services, because Amazon have said that the reason that they're getting rid of Visa payments is because of the pretty egregious price rises from Visa over a number of years with no additional value to its service. Now, this may be true, this may not be true, but, you know, maybe there's some complacency here from Visa. Big companies can get complacent. Now, Apple have done some power moves recently, so Apple have made it much harder to do email marketing. Much harder to do advertising. And Apple and Facebook have had a big scrap in public many times over. I've seen Facebook criticize Apple Pay of taking a huge percentage. So for example, I have a Facebook supporter program, and people pay, what, $3.49, $5 a month. And Apple Pay take 30% of that, but Apple Pay is the main payment gateway. And by the way, Apple Pay is so frictionless. People press a button, double-click on the phone on the right-hand side, and they pay via Apple Pay. So Facebook rely on Apple Pay. Apple Pay is frictionless, quick. Therefore, I like it as a producer and a creator. Why? Because if you want to join my supporter program, you just press the button, double-click, and you're in. If you have to put in all your credit card details again and go through security checks, you're not going to do it. So actually, Apple Pay removed the friction, increased the speed, which is really valuable, and probably how Apple Pay have evolved. And maybe Visa have not evolved in the same way. However, then they take 30%, and so Facebook are like, 30%, that's outrageous. So what Facebook did is they removed their fees through COVID to help support us. Now my guess is if Facebook had their own payment platform or they weren't reliant on iPhones, they would use a different payment platform. And because Apple own most of us because we're all on Apple phones, they then can use iTunes and Apple Pay. I mean, they charge 30%— 30% of all subscription revenue Apple Pay— Apple charge as the payment provider. Or the payment gateway. And then if it's through Visa, then Visa are getting their fee as well. So of my supporter subscription revenue, I'm only charging $5 frickin' dollars. Amazon are getting 30%, Visa are probably getting a couple of percent, Facebook probably want 30%. I'm left with fuck all! So everyone taking their slice, and Amazon have gone, sorry, bye Visa, you're taking too much money, bye! I mean, holy shit, the board at Visa must be absolutely panicking right now. Cool. So let me know what you think about all of this. I think it's a brilliant discussion. I think it's way more than just, oh, bad news for Visa, and, you know, maybe MasterCard and Amazon have done a deal. But if MasterCard are more competitive, if MasterCard are collaborating with Amazon, hats off to them. If the consumer wins, if the fees are cheaper, and get this, this for me is the big thing. So breaking news, Amazon have just announced in the last 12 hours that they're getting rid of Visa credit card payments on Amazon. This is massive because Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc., they're the big players. These are a massive player, a billion-dollar company, and all of a sudden billions of revenue overnight on January 19th is going to be wiped off them. Now clearly Visa have said the announcement, the suggestion, Visa aren't accepting this, and Visa are clearly going to try and do a deal back with Amazon. They'd be stupid not to. But this is the bit that I love the most. Now Amazon reward card is powered by MasterCard. That's like Netflix streaming by Blockbuster. DVD is so old, Netflix do streaming. Mastercard are now partnering with Amazon. Very smart play for Mastercard. Get this as well, um, Amazon are offering a £20 reward if people move from— let me, let me see the quotes here. All right, let's have a look. Where is it? Right, Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from using Visa to an alternative payment method, and 10% for non-Prime customers. So not only have Amazon said bye Visa, sorry, but they're offering a £20 bonus for Prime customers if you switch from Visa to Mastercard or an alternative payment method. That is a double blow. Willy is out. Slap, slap. Holy shit, Amazon, man, they're powerful. They're fucking powerful. Now we have— by the way, if you don't like this and you think this is a power move or a greedy capitalist move, remember you buy all your shit on Amazon. You buy all your shit on Amazon. We put Amazon in power. But to be fair, Amazon's delivery is quick, the Prime service is great, the content on Amazon Prime is really good. They offer you loads of value, high speed, low friction. So Michael has said to me here, do I think that Amazon will get a referral for the switch. So Amazon is offering £20 for Prime customers to switch from Visa to an alternative payment method. Well, they've just done a deal with Mastercard, it seems. I can't say that for sure, but they have said now that the Amazon Rewards Card is powered by Mastercard— Mastercard, sorry, I'm getting a bit excited here. So let me just make this clear, um, according to BBC breaking news. So Amazon Rewards Card is now Powered by Mastercard. Amazon are offering a £20 reward if you switch from paying via Visa to paying by alternative payment methods. Who's probably the biggest alternative payment methods? Mastercard. So do I think that Mastercard are going to give a kickback to Amazon? Of course I do. And this doesn't in any— by the way, I don't think this is illegal, or I don't necessarily think anything is wrong with this. If the consumer gets quicker and better payments and cheaper payments, then the consumer wins. So you'd have to argue that Visa have missed a trick here. Amazon's argument is that their fees have gone up and up and up, and the value of their service has not gone up in line. So you can say, yeah, Amazon the bullies, Amazon always do this, Amazon kick out all the lower retailers. I remember a lot of e-commerce sellers pretty much getting undercut and booted out by Amazon, but it's Amazon's platform. You know, you don't go into someone's living room, go, I don't like your sofa, I don't like your TV, can I take a piss on your rug? No, you don't do that. I mean, you know, we all use Amazon. So if you don't like this, we'll put them in power. Um, look, I don't know all the details. Please hit the share button because I think this is massive breaking news. There's so many lessons. I think when big corporates fight with each other, we should all get the lessons from it so we can make sure that we don't end up in the same position. Don't be reliant on one supplier. Don't get lazy. Don't assume all the deals that you've got you're always going to get. Watch what your competition are doing. You know, Mastercard look like they played an absolutely genius move here. Like, if I was Mastercard Would I love for Visa to not be allowed to be used on Amazon? Of course! Visa and Mastercard are the two big payment processors, the two big dogs, the Steve Jobs and the Bill Gates, the Leo Messi and the Cristiano Ronaldo. That's what they are of payment processing. And so if I had a way to get rid of Visa and I must— God fucking right you would! Why wouldn't you? So Amazon Rewards is now powered by Visa. Massive screw you move. Sorry, Amazon Rewards cards is now powered by Mastercard. I mean, that's the biggest power play move on Visa from Mastercard, I think, ever. Amazon are offering £20 reward to switch from Visa to another payment processor. How many payment processors are there? Mastercard? I mean, is it— can you use Amex? You can't use Amex in a lot of places. You probably can. Mastercard's the big one. So someone has asked me, well, Mastercard, do I reckon that they'll be getting a kickback? Well, if I was Mastercard, I'd be paying Amazon loads of money, loads of money to have people, um, use me to pay rather than use Visa to pay. Anyway, I've got rather excited about this because I think this is huge breaking news. Um, so please hit the share button. Let me know what you think, uh, of the breaking news that, um, Amazon are getting rid of Visa as a payment provider on their platform from the 19th of January. At the moment it's UK Visa credit card, but it could be America and global, and it could— who says it couldn't be Visa debit as well? This is the biggest shock to Visa I think they would have ever seen. I don't think they'd have ever seen anything as hard as them— for them in business. I cannot imagine it. Their board must be absolutely reeling. How are they going to react? Well, they've got to try and come back and cut a deal with Amazon. They've got to make their fees fair. You know, my bank and credit card fee charges that I see coming through my company is tens of thousands of pounds a month. It's ridiculous. It seems to go up and up and up, not down and down and down. So maybe this is a wake-up call to Masterclass and Visa. Mastercard and Visa and American Express, don't get freaking greedy. Improve your service over time. You don't pay £100 for that 16GB card, it's a piece of plastic. You pay a fiver or a tenner for that. But 10 years ago, for a 1MB or a 10MB, you'd pay £50 because it was new, because there was a lot of friction. But over time you get economies of scale of production, you get Moore's Law of the doubling of the size of a Um, basically the speed of technology, the doubling, I believe it is, of the amount of information you can have on a transistor or something like that. Gordon Moore's Law. Big news. Let me know what you think in the comments and hit the share button. Ran over. Woo! Is it game over for Visa? Don't rely on one supplier. Stay lean, stay agile, and innovate your products and services. Is this an opportunity for other payment providers to come and step up? Cryptos maybe, although there's still a lot of friction in cryptos. Cheers! Hit the share button, let me know what you think in the comments. I'm going to go get my coffee and I'm going to come and discuss and debate this with you. There's so much to learn. Uh, I do think it's kind of funny when the big Goliaths get their willies out and start hitting each other with their willies. Um, and you can see in the quote, so, um, Visa have said, um, We have a long-standing relationship with Amazon. Um, we are very disappointed that Amazon is threatening to restrict customer choice in the future. They actually could be using the media as a power play here because they've said they'll stop issuing Visa credit cards from the 19th of January. Amazon have said threatening. Is it actually done though? Could it just be a power play move using the media by Amazon? I remember seeing OnlyFans announcing that they would no longer have pornography on OnlyFans, which I'm told is 40% of OnlyFans and most of their revenue. And then 3 days later they reversed their decision. Ah, reversed your decision. Is this a media move? Let me know what you think in the comments. I'll catch you later. Um, Visa share price dropped 5%. Someone has just said, wow, I would have thought it would drop a lot more than that, but let's watch what happens. Um, no, it's not all Visa, it's UK Visa credit, but that'll still be billions of pounds. I actually do think that credit card fees are penal. I think with, um, how easy it is to exchange money and how it is all digital now, I see our bank charges, I see our Visa and MasterCard and credit card charges, and we pay tens of thousands a month. I do think it is penal. Maybe they should be disrupted. You know, when a market gets lazy When a market gets expensive, when a market lacks competition, because what have you got? Mastercard, Visa, American Express. Maybe they all need disrupting. Maybe we need some more agile banks and credit card processors to come in and charge us a lot freaking less. Let me know what you think. Hit the share button. Let's have a chat in the comments.