Guys, how come you don't take Amex any more?
Do I have to go to Wholesale Sports now?
Guys, how come you don't take Amex any more?
Do I have to go to Wholesale Sports now?
Beat me to it..
I think it really has fallen out of favour even in buisness circles where they used to be dominant
Plus I believe they charged the most to the merchant.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
I use my Amex for everything I can to maximize my points (gas, groceries etc etc). If it came comes to a store that takes Amex and one that doesn't (everything else being equal) I shop at the Amex friendly store
Fan of Browning Hi-Powers and both S&W and Colt revolvers
Amex charges higher usage fees that just about every other card company.
The typical Master Card/Visa providers charge the vendor 2.5% of the transaction.
Some of the ones that give you special points/bonus stuff (airmiles or the like) can run upwards of 4%.
Amex has always been higher and at least at one time they didn't pay the retailer until they received payment (on their cards where the whole balance had to be paid off monthly).
So when you are trying to stay "competitive" you have probably built in 2.5% to your selling price to cover "transaction fees", much more than that and you may not be making enough to make the deal worthwhile.
Big box stores can "eat" that cost because overall it averages out (debit has uber cheap "fixed" transaction fees) but if you have to give a card company 5% of a 2K purchase that may have been your whole "margin" if you are a smaller operation that operates almost exclusively on credit card sales.
(our "transaction fees" for fiscal 2014 topped 75K - ya, 75,000 bucks just for taking plastic - you know our customers had that added in to the cost)
I have an Amex savings account. The upside is that they need a blood sample to access it or change the autodebit. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to save when you're not allowed to withdraw.