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Comment by pbalau | Hacker News Reader

I really doubt there are millions of us that chose to pay on Amazon with Visa Credit Cards, here in UK.

> I really doubt there are millions of us that chose to pay on Amazon with Visa Credit Cards, here in UK.

Not sure where you're coming from? Many (most?) UK retail banks use VISA for their card card network. I have VISA cards from HSBC, Barclays, MBNA, etc... In fact I didn't have anything else so I got a new AmEx when they said they were stopping accepting VISA.

Those are debit cards, are they not? Which Amazon were still going to accept.

No all credit cards.

HSBC and Barclaycard I agree, but your MBNA experience is the opposite of mine - they closed my Visa and, I thought, completely went to Mastercard!

Regarding the overall proportion, when the Amazon announcement was originally made Which? listed all the retail banks and other card issuers. MasterCard far outstrips Visa at a ratio of 3:1 (15 to 5): https://www.which.co.uk/news/2021/11/amazons-visa-credit-car...

I went to look and looks like the MBNA product I have isn't available to the general public (not sure why - I'm not some kind of big shot.)

https://www.headforpoints.com/2018/05/31/mbna-offering-uks-b...

My HSBC Debit card is Visa.

This whole thread is about credit cards. If your cards from HSBC etc are debit cards then nothing in the thread applies to you.

You are arguing that all Visa cards in UK are credit cards. My DEBIT card is Visa. So is my credit card. Both from HSBC.

> You are arguing that all Visa cards in UK are credit cards.

No where did you read that? It's not true that all VISA cards in the UK are credit cards. It's just that only credit cards are relevant here.

> My DEBIT card is Visa.

Again... this thread is about credit cards, not debit cards. Nobody's talking about debit cards.

It's anyone with a HSBC or Barclaycard credit card, so probably quite a lot of people

People who care enough about that sort of thing have Amex reward cards too which Amazon would still accept.

People who don't care enough would normally have been OK paying with their Visa Debit which they will usually also have as an HSBC or Barclays retail customer...

Except it's hammered home in the UK to use credit cards for online purchases where possible for Section 75 protection as well as if the card details are involved in a breach you don't have your bank account emptied and can't pay your bills.

Section 75 in particular has a lot of attention in the UK because over the last 4 years a lot of businesses have gone bust, and people who paid by bank transfer or debit card were shafted, receiving pennies on the pound (if that).

Why? Are Visa credit cards not as common there as they are in the US?

Norm in the UK amongst most banks/card issuers these days seems to be either Visa or Mastercard Debit and Mastercard Credit. Out of all the meaningful issuers that I know of, only Barclaycard and HSBC issue Visa Credit, with everyone else issuing Mastercard (or Amex, which targets a different kind of users).

Yeah, pretty much most cards you get now are MasterCard I assume due to Visa fees.

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