credit card

Since Costco stopped taking AMEX I don't use their card anymore. Most places don't take AMEX. I use my BMO cash back MasterCard for almost all my purchases. I rarely carry very much cash money!
 
Also the Canadian Gov went MC because people were having issues using their Gov supplied AMEX around the world. So AMEX looses both the Canadian Gov and Costco, that is a hit.
 
I use it to buy gas and accumulate Air Miles. At Shell...I get Air Miles on the purchase (Air Miles card) and on my Amex account. Other than that...restaurants only.
 
Every Restaurant, Hotel, Car rental, Airline, and most gas stations take Amex. Generally, retail stores do not take Amex because it is too expensive for them and they have such a fine line on their markups already it isn't worth it for them however some stores do take it (Shoppers Drug mart for example) and they enjoy the extra clientele that Amex brings in. Costco were idiots for dropping Amex and I will be letting my membership with Costco lapse this month...not just for the Amex thing but many other reasons that I hate Costco for (but that is for a different thread!).

I love my Amex card and the and use if for automatically paying most of my monthly bills too...this really adds up the points which I have used many times and can be used to get almost anything I want.

Amex is not dead and dying...it is alive and well and used by people who know how to use it to their advantage properly.

BTW I also have a Mastercard as backup to places that do not take Amex....it only sees the light of day if my Amex card is not accepted. Following that I use debit...my wallet rarely sees cash these days (it was like that before but for different reason!).
 
I like that nobody has said "Diner's Club" once in this thread.

Also, sidebar: The "Square" payment thing for small businesses that use iphones - there's a thread on CGN about a company in Petawawa (I think) who was shut out by Square because the transactions were for firearms and accessories = very anti-gun. Not Auber-related to this conversation, but a great opportunity to remind everyone to avoid that.
 
sulisa said:
I like that nobody has said "Diner's Club" once in this thread.

Also, sidebar: The "Square" payment thing for small businesses that use iphones - there's a thread on CGN about a company in Petawawa (I think) who was shut out by Square because the transactions were for firearms and accessories = very anti-gun. Not Auber-related to this conversation, but a great opportunity to remind everyone to avoid that.
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DC is now MC :)
 
Also off topic but I remember travelling as a kid in the 60's with my parents. For restaurants, hotels etc etc it was always Amex, Diner's Club or Carte Blanche (or American Express Traveler's Cheques). Chargex (forerunner to Visa) hadn't even been thought of.
 
Ok, in November I got WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard from Royal Bank. Spoke to my mechanic and he freaked out saying that charges on this premium card are more then Amex.
 
Warbird_2006 said:
Ok, in November I got WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard from Royal Bank. Spoke to my mechanic and he freaked out saying that charges on this premium card are more then Amex.
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I've had retailers offer me a gift card for 1.5% of the purchase to match my rewards and avoid the large interchange fee.

It works for me most times! The only time it doesn't work is if I really want the double warranty.
 
tinbird said:
So this means that TD, Servus CU, Visa or MC are anti-gun, or that they aren't, which means they are pro-gun???
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Banks are pro-money more than anything else...I would bet that as long as you aren't using one to make a "withdrawal" they have very little official opinion on them at all.
 
Warbird_2006 said:
Ok, in November I got WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard from Royal Bank. Spoke to my mechanic and he freaked out saying that charges on this premium card are more then Amex.
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This is 100% true. MC World Elite is the highest fee card out there at the moment. I hate it worse than Amex.

Then again , I paid over $6 million in Amex fees last year, and about $30 million for Visa/MC. Remember that Visa/MC only get a small % of the fees (like .07%) and the rest goes to the issuing bank.

With Amex - they get it ALL since they are the issuing bank and the Card brand/scheme.
 
Yes, they are a business "expense", but you are only getting back a "percentage" of what your total transaction costs were - so it's still expensive.

Think of it like an individual giving a 100 buck donation to "save the whales" - you get a federal and most times a provincial credit that comes out to 10 or 15 bucks - so you are still maybe 85 bucks "out of pocket". It's not a buck for buck credit (not paying tax on an amount is not the same as getting a "tax credit").

Because of that merchants have to "assume" that you will use a credit card and that transaction fee charge is "factored in" when we set the price on a product - just like rent, utilities, losses, wages etc - everything has a percentage. In most places it's on the order of 10 to 15% "before" they actually make anything themselves.
 
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