Comments on: Some businesses should always accept American Express.

By: Robert Azzario

Robert Azzario — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:23:30 +0000

Due to the EXTREMELY low level of customer service, I will NOT accept, nor deal with Amex. (and I do not carry the card) The commercials they run are highly deceiving.

By: Credit Card Processing

Credit Card Processing — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:08:12 +0000

American Express is a great card for merchants that do a lot of business to business credit card processing. The discount rate for American Express does not fluctuate like it does for Visa/MasterCard. If American Express sets your discount rate at 3% no matter what type of card you take (ie. personal, business) it’s always going to be the same %. With Visa and MasterCard the discount rate changes based on the type of card you take. A merchant can pay over 4% on some Visa/MasterCard corporate/business cards.

By: optionsmaster

optionsmaster — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 02:07:59 +0000

I find AMEX inconvient to use.
With VISA and MC, I haven’t used AMEX since 1999.
And I haven’t looked back.

By: MillionAccounts.Com

MillionAccounts.Com — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 06:37:36 +0000

Let me Add…

35% of Amex card holders won’t enter a store or web site not displaying their favorite logo, and Amex purchases average 20% more than Visa or Master Card…

By: jestep

jestep — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:34:12 +0000

tigerincanada

That’s a good point. I help businesses in the US so much more than other countries, or currencies, that I didn’t even know about this inconvenience. I can completely see how a customer could be very confused by the merchant calculating an exchange on the spot.

One of the things that American banks do have with Visa/MC is a forex fee. Technically, by performing the exchange you are saving a customer a few bucks on a transaction, although they may never know it.

Either way, it seems like Amex would have come up with a better solution for this situation.

By: tigerincanada

tigerincanada — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:55:18 +0000

Unlike Visa and Mastercard, Amex doesn’t let you process in the cardholder’s home currency – you must accept only the currency of the country in which your office is located. This is downright inconvenient for the customer (who must accept exchange rate uncertainty) and unfortunate for the merchant, who can not relieve the customer of exchange rate uncertainty and explain to people who enter an Amex card number why their transaction currency has been changed.

By: jestep

jestep — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:55:01 +0000

This is absolutely true. The main point was that businesses that don’t accept Amex for whatever reason could be loosing customers because of it. Visa and Mastercard still make up the vast majority of credit cards, so it should be assumed that accepting them is absolutely necessary.

By: eTechSupport

eTechSupport — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:22:19 +0000

As a merchant Its mportant to make sure about your payment processor that they accept major CC and also Master/ATM/Debit card otherwise you may loose sales.