Wtf is with more and more places not taking AMEX cards

[Jadow]

VISA and MC charge Merchants like 1-2% transaction fee.

Amex is like 3-4 percent.

Most people with Amex are also going to have other cards like MC, so the Merchants dont really lose much business by not accepting Amex, and they get to keep an extra 2 cents out of every dollar if they don't.

 

[Jadow]

AMEX is better in every way to the consumer though. And the customer service is better then nearly every VISA card, and its always the same person you call. Not a different person depending on the bank who issues the card.

I prefer my AMEX card over both my VISA and MC's for the customer service and the fact that I know they won't question me if I charge back or something from an issue I have

I don't know. Their rewards points aren't that great, it's a dollar a point, and the points convert to dollars at much less than 1-1 unless you want a Home Depot or Barnes and Noble GC.

Their airfaire/travel engine is the same one orbitz and travelocity use, there's really no benefit to that.

I will say the emergency roadside assistance was nice back when I had an Amex Gold.

 

[Jadow]

What do you mean? They charge me lower interest then most of my other CC's

Maybe you do, not me



Why don't you try going paperless like nearly all tech savvy individuals. WTF still needs a paper bill

Amex has both Charge and Credit cards.

The traditional Green/Gold/Platinum is a charge card, but they also have "Amex Blue" which is a credit card.

 

[God Mode]

Depending on the business, putting an atm in the store and refusing credit cards yields better profits for the year. Sure you'll lose customers but nothing that different marketing cant fix.

 

[thepd7]

just cancelled my Amex Gold. The benefits seem great but in a year of free use I never needed a single benefit. If I wanted to pay $150 for insurance I'd get an umbrella policy. I did get 3 free airline tickets out of it though (2 off the initial points offer, 1 from points accrued).

 

[Dominato3r]

Visa ( costs the least to transact)

Mastercard

Amex

 

[Jumpem]

AMEX is a charge card, not a credit card. If you don't pay in full, they fsck you right ITB

Some of them may be, mine is not. I've been carrying a 3.99% balance on it for a couple years.

 

[dennilfloss]

Amex charges higher fees.

/thread

Been told that's the reason some places no longer accept my MasterCard either.

 

[xrax]

My company switched from AMEX to MC corporate cards a few years ago.
I got the Costco AMEX that I use gives 3% cash back on gas and restaurants. I think it's 2% on travel and 1% on everything else. I use the amazon visa or american airlines MC for everything else.

 

[mrrman]

You mean a higher fee to the retailer to accept AMEX?

yes...thats the case

 

[Aharami]

AMEX customer service is spectacular compared to the other CC companies.

yes. only reason I keep using my AMEX over my Chase VISA

 

[slayer202]

what about the piece of shit stores that don't accept credit cards at all, or worse, bitch when you use a credit card. cheap fucks

 

[oogabooga]

Been told that's the reason some places no longer accept my MasterCard either.

A lot of accounts MasterCard and Visa are similarly priced. MC might charge more for some other things?

AmEx typically tends to be more expensive (transaction fees) - plus a lot of processors I think stick additional fees on top of that for the Amex processor (more hands in the pot)

 

[lxskllr]

Amex has always had weak coverage. I use a credit card to have a backup tool that works anywhere. If I need something NOW, I don't feel like looking all over town for a place that takes Amex. EVERYBODY takes Visa, so that's the card to have.

 

[Azurik]

Discover's still in business I guess that means they have a good credit card too?

Visa > Amex.

Discover is a distant fourth amongst the major credit card companies.

Look, I'm not going to argue over a well-known fact. American Express is a far superior credit card company than any of the other 3, especially from the consumer side. Their SPG card is probably known as one of the best credit cards out there. A combined PenFed Visa card along with the SPG Amex is all one needs.

There's also a reason why I pay annual fees of $450 a year for their Platinum card and $2,500 a year for their Centurion card. The features and benefits far outweigh any Visa/MC card out there.

 

[lxskllr]

Discover is a distant fourth amongst the major credit card companies.

Look, I'm not going to argue over a well-known fact. American Express is a far superior credit card company than any of the other 3, especially from the consumer side. Their SPG card is probably known as one of the best credit cards out there. A combined PenFed Visa card along with the SPG Amex is all one needs.

There's also a reason why I pay annual fees of $450 a year for their Platinum card and $2,500 a year for their Centurion card. The features and benefits far outweigh any Visa/MC card out there.

So what are these awesome features that make it worth $3,000 per year to have somebody lend you money in 30 day increments?

 

[Hyperlite]

My family's restaurant *used* to hold a business account with AMEX. Over the last few years, with heavy spending and complete, on time payments, our limit has gotten lower, and lower and lower....until AMEX finally closed most of their small business OPEN accounts. We had this card with them for about 12 years. Somewhat related: http://www.complaints.com/2008/may/16/CLOSED_by_American_Express__170870.htm

 

[Azurik]

So what are these awesome features that make it worth $3,000 per year to have somebody lend you money in 30 day increments?

Too many to list out, but the ones I use the most are:

1) automatic mid-tier status on airlines (priority boarding, seat upgrades, higher mileage credit)
- Delta Airlines Gold
- US Airways Platinum
- Continental Airlines Gold
- Virgin Atlantic Airways Gold

2) elite status on car rentals
- Avis Preferred
- Hertz Gold

3) free international lounge access... buying lounge access on one airline will cost you $200-$600 a year EACH
- Delta Crown Room
- American Airlines Admirals Club
- Continental President's Club
- Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses
- Northwest WorldClubs
- Priority Pass (which has about 500 lounges around the world)

4) Conceirge Service - they'll get virtually whatever you want
- I live in Boston and used this to get seats in restaurants that were "filled"
- VIP access to clubs in Boston, no waiting in line
- need only blue M&Ms in a bag? just call them

5) superior protection
- I bought something and lost it? Someone stole it? They'll refund you the purchase price.
- Extends warranty on items for 2 additional years - no reason to buy warranty protection from Best Buy, et el anymore
- Travel and baggage protection... flight delayed? They'll reimburse me for my hotel stay and other neccessities while I wait

6) automatic status on hotels
- SPG Gold (used to be Platinum, where you can auto upgrade to suites when you book the cheapest room)
- Hilton Gold
- ICH Gold

7) Yacht and Cruise credits

8) backstage concert tickets

 

[QueBert]

Discover is a distant fourth amongst the major credit card companies.

Look, I'm not going to argue over a well-known fact. American Express is a far superior credit card company than any of the other 3, especially from the consumer side. Their SPG card is probably known as one of the best credit cards out there. A combined PenFed Visa card along with the SPG Amex is all one needs.

There's also a reason why I pay annual fees of $450 a year for their Platinum card and $2,500 a year for their Centurion card. The features and benefits far outweigh any Visa/MC card out there.

You should change that to say ONLY on the consumer side. Every places I've worked at that took Amex hated them with a passion and only did so because they felt their hands were tied. For whatever reason Costco loves Amex, but trust me you won't find any other businesses that will agree with you. Amex sucks balls, just because it's good for consumer doesn't mean it's better. Ask any business, Amex will easily be a distant 4th, and a company they wish didn't exist. I worked at a store that paid visa 1.2% + .5 cents a transaction. Amex was 3.5% and I believe a quarter. Amex is better? haha okay

 

[FleshLight]

Too many to list out, but the ones I use the most are:

1) automatic mid-tier status on airlines (priority boarding, seat upgrades, higher mileage credit)
- Delta Airlines Gold
- US Airways Platinum
- Continental Airlines Gold
- Virgin Atlantic Airways Gold

2) elite status on car rentals
- Avis Preferred
- Hertz Gold

3) free international lounge access... buying lounge access on one airline will cost you $200-$600 a year EACH
- Delta Crown Room
- American Airlines Admirals Club
- Continental President's Club
- Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses
- Northwest WorldClubs
- Priority Pass (which has about 500 lounges around the world)

4) Conceirge Service - they'll get virtually whatever you want
- I live in Boston and used this to get seats in restaurants that were "filled"
- VIP access to clubs in Boston, no waiting in line
- need only blue M&Ms in a bag? just call them

5) superior protection
- I bought something and lost it? Someone stole it? They'll refund you the purchase price.
- Extends warranty on items for 2 additional years - no reason to buy warranty protection from Best Buy, et el anymore
- Travel and baggage protection... flight delayed? They'll reimburse me for my hotel stay and other neccessities while I wait

6) automatic status on hotels
- SPG Gold (used to be Platinum, where you can auto upgrade to suites when you book the cheapest room)
- Hilton Gold
- ICH Gold

7) Yacht and Cruise credits

8) backstage concert tickets

And you get to have a black credit card which increases the size of your peen. But if you want a black card, you can always pay $500 for the Visa Black (glorified visa platinum) or have one of those elite brokerage cards (need to have $100k + in a brokerage account)

 

[FleshLight]

You should change that to say ONLY on the consumer side. Every places I've worked at that took Amex hated them with a passion and only did so because they felt their hands were tied. For whatever reason Costco loves Amex, but trust me you won't find any other businesses that will agree with you. Amex sucks balls, just because it's good for consumer doesn't mean it's better. Ask any business, Amex will easily be a distant 4th, and a company they wish didn't exist. I worked at a store that paid visa 1.2% + .5 cents a transaction. Amex was 3.5% and I believe a quarter. Amex is better? haha okay

Amex has an exclusive agreement with costco to charge lower interchange rates than all their competitors.

 

[zinfamous]

You mean a higher fee to the retailer to accept AMEX?

yep.

 

[QueBert]

Amex has an exclusive agreement with costco to charge lower interchange rates than all their competitors.

I figured that much, and that would make sense why Costco is only store that actually wants to go with Amex. Amex randomly fucks lots of people by lowering their credit a shit ton. Even when the people pay their bills on time every month and have never been a risk. There were even rumors a few years ago that if a person had an Amex card and used it at Walmart a lot, they would get a huge drop in their credit limit. I don't doubt it was true. My GF has one of their business cards or whatever, pays a stupid amount each year to get a few perks.

 

[miri]

I love my Amex as most who have one probably do. I love the protection it offers me, the wide range of services available, and most of all it has helped me stay out of debt because the bill is paid in full at the end of every month.

That being said, I have noticed that lately more and more places have been refusing AMEX cards. A month ago I went to purchase a kitchen table and chairs at a well known retailer and it was "sorry we don't accept American Express anymore". And today I went to a pool supply store because I needed a new cover pump and I got the same story, "sorry we don't accept it anymore".

WTF?

I still bought the pool pump, but I walked out of the furniture store and let the commission hungry salesman know that he lost a sale.

Would you accept AMEX if you knew that you would have to pay more out of pocket then accepting Visa/MC?

 

[SlitheryDee]

Holy batman... so much misinformation in this thread...

AMEX charges higher fees than VISA or MC. You looking roughly at 2.5% vs 1.5%. That's why most merchants want you to use another card... HOWEVER...

AMEX is a much better credit card for the consumer is virtually all aspects. There's a reason why AMEX is still in business despite the lower fees from VISA and MC, they're known to have more affluential customers - they spend more per transaction compared to VISA and MC holders. AMEX also has a higher requirement to get one of their cards.

And AMEX is not just a charge card company... they offer many credit cards too (Blue, Starwoods, etc.).

This is true. My business DOES take amex, and it is usually a big sale when one turns up. However, Visa and MC makes up such an overwhelming majority of our business that it would not hurt us to drop amex. I don't plan to do that, though. I'll eat the higher fees as long as the sales are still resulting in a good profit.