Which Amazon Sellers Are Exempt From the April 15 Ad Change
Amazon's decision to shift advertising costs from credit card billing to automatic deduction from seller proceeds has turned out to be narrower in scope than initially feared. A follow-up email from Amazon Ads confirms that some accounts will not be affected at all.
What Amazon Told Some Sellers
The follow-up email, sent by Amazon Ads and screenshotted across Reddit and seller forums, reads:
For sellers who received this message, nothing changes on April 15. Credit cards remain a valid primary payment method.
Who Gets the Change and Who Does Not
The picture that has emerged from seller forums is that the billing change is being rolled out in phases based on ad spend volume. Sellers reporting notification of the change tend to be high-volume spenders.
One seller on Reddit's r/FulfillmentByAmazon reported spending $80,000 per month on PPC and receiving the change notification. Another, a verified $10M+ annual sales seller, confirmed receiving the same email despite spending significantly more.
The working theory among sellers is straightforward: the larger the ad spend, the more interchange fees Amazon absorbs on credit card transactions, and the more incentive Amazon has to move those accounts off card billing first.
As one seller put it, “Can't see any upside for Amazon to allow anyone to continue high PPC spend on cards for them to pay the 2-3% interchange fees.”
Amazon has said the overwhelming majority of advertisers already pay by deducting ad costs from retail proceeds, meaning the April 15 change was always intended to affect only a subset of remaining holdouts on card billing. The follow-up clarification email is Amazon's attempt to reduce noise from sellers who were alarmed by the initial announcement but are not actually subject to the change.
Related reading: Meta Ends Credit Card Payments for DTC Ad Accounts—Amazon Next?
Why the Confusion Happened
The original notification went only to affected accounts, with no public announcement. When sellers who received it posted it publicly, the reaction spread well beyond the actual scope of the change. Sellers who had not received the email assumed the change was coming for everyone, and the alarm spread accordingly.
That framing drove the April 15 boycott discussion, where sellers organized through the Million Dollar Sellers community planned to turn off all ad spend for one day to protest the change. The boycott was premised on the idea that all sellers were losing credit card billing. The follow-up email complicates that narrative, since a significant portion of the seller base appears not to be affected.
What Affected Sellers Still Face
For the sellers who did receive the original notification, nothing about the financial impact has changed. Starting April 15, advertising costs are deducted from retail proceeds before disbursement. The approximately 60-day working capital buffer that existed when ad spend ran on a credit card cycle and proceeds arrived on a separate cycle is gone for those accounts. Credit card rewards on ad spend disappear entirely as a primary payment method, replaced by a one-time $2,500 promotional credit.
The rollout pattern also signals where this is heading. High-spend accounts are being moved first. Sellers currently unaffected who spend meaningfully on Amazon Ads should not assume their current billing arrangement is permanent. The direction of travel, as both Amazon and Meta have demonstrated this year, is away from credit card billing for ad spend at scale.
