Amex is a clear example of where the power and focus lies here. Amex gives its customers great benefits. It charges merchants an arm and a leg to do that. Lite

Amex is a clear example of where the power and focus lies here. Amex gives its customers great benefits. It charges merchants an arm and a leg to do that. Literally double the fees. Merchants then refuse to accept it a lot of the time, but every time a customer "only has an Amex card" they lose business, so a lot do accept it, grudgingly. Of course customers prefer to use their Amex card whenever they can, because benefits. So they often pretend to "only have an Amex card" (much like "the machine is broken" in taxis, that then miraculously fixes itself when you pull out some loose change as "the only cash I have"). the customer is king, as always.