4 ms·

That would be cool. Amex support way better than GS that’s for sure. Would suck for retailers though. Amex fees among the highest when compared to other networ

• eli 3y ago
  Apple Card was already charging high merchant fees. https://www.imore.com/retailers-are-paying-premium-you-use-your-apple-card https://www.imore.com/retailers-are-paying-premium-you-use-y...
  • xyst 3y ago
    Now it’s going to get even higher with Amex network fees
• wsc981 3y ago
  I got an Amex card and I think it kinda sucks. Many businesses in Thailand don't accept Amex, I think due to the high fees. At some point I want to change my card (once I can get a credit card from a bank in Thailand, cause my Amex card is from The Netherlands). Would be much better if Apple would get with MasterCard. Based on my experience, no issues anywhere.
  • deleted 3y ago
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  • symlinkk 3y ago
    Doesn’t work in Costco. Visa works everywhere.
    • astura 3y ago
      Costco only accepts whatever credit card the Costco credit card currently is. Right now that's Visa, but it used to be American Express before 2016, ironically. Supposedly this exclusively allows them to negotiate down the fee really low.
      • bjoyx 3y ago
        It's Mastercard in Japan https://www.costco.co.jp/GlobalCard https://www.costco.co.jp/GlobalCard
        • katbyte 3y ago
          mastercard in canada too
      • DaiPlusPlus 3y ago
        Surely the grand total of Costco’s US credit-card fees can’t amount to more than a percentage-of-a-percentage of all credit-card spending in the country? ...otherwise WalMart and other major retailers (Amazon?) would have partnered with a single credit-card network to benefit too
        • mocheeze 3y ago
          Walmart and Kroger have had their own disputes with Visa (for one example) and (at least Kroger) started blocking some of their cards at select chains in order to negotiate a better deal. Costco has super tight margins. The the point that when their execs are talking about the price of goods they don't say, "[Item] is $70." No, they say, "[Item] is 69.99." Their culture is about every last penny of the margin. Their money comes from memberships.
      • scrlk 3y ago
        Costco UK accepts all three card networks (Amex/Mastercard/Visa). I wonder how their UK division can do this if Costco prefers to do exclusivity deals that allow them to lock in a low fee?
        • atdrummond 3y ago
          Europe has lower fees by legislative fiat. UK still has these (mostly) due to the majority of these caps existing pre-Brexit.
  • zarzavat 3y ago
    Amex’s business proposition to sellers is “we charge high fees but a lot of rich people have Amex so you (the seller) should suck it up and accept us anyway” Sure that works if you’re selling perfume or handbags, but if you’re a family restaurant then rich people and regular people eat the same quantity of food, your margins are low, why accept it? Moreover Amex is pretty rare outside of certain markets. If only foreigners use Amex, and your business is not catered to foreigners, then you probably aren’t going to support it or in some cases even know what the hell it is.
    • n_ary 3y ago
      Whelp, here in Germany many Starbucks and McDonalds, as well as some restaurants(middle to high end) immediately decline(or block Amex payment at counter), though if I am a bit sneaky and use Apple Pay method they can't see it and sometimes actually work. The issue with other cards here(Germany) is, everything is fake credit, i.e. my Visa/MasterCard is just "Debit" and immediately books paid amount from my bank and some also comes with hefty monthly fees because they issue a shiny/designer "Debit" card. My bank indeed issues a real MasterCard but the monthly fees are unreasonable added on top of my already expensive checking account fees and it has very crappy app where trying to temporarily (un-)block my card needs calling their support and waiting in line while amex app gives me these features immediately on app. Amex however gives me real credit(though they book the whole amount on start of next month) and also payback points in exchange for minuscle monthly fees but they have free same card with less sexy design which doesn't signal my ego correctly.
      • ulfw 3y ago
        What you describe for your particular Amex card isn't a real credit card either. That's a charge card. Germany doesn't do real credit cards much (if at all?)
        • lycopodiopsida 3y ago
          It does, he could get one from Hanseatic Bank for free, DKB had a proper credit card for years (now with s fee). They are mostly fee-ridden, since germans don’t like them very much (cultural thing?) and they are offered as an extra.
  • deleted 3y ago
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  • wkat4242 3y ago
    Same in Europe. I have an Amex card from work. Hotels and most restaurants accept it, most taxis and shops don't. They absolutely hate that card and even if they accept it you practically have to beg them to take it (and even then they will pretend "the machine is broken"). Even in big countries. Try to get a taxi in the queue at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. They will ask you to stand on the side and beg each taxi driver until they finally get one for you. Also the damn thing never works in machines, like for public transport tickets :( Which is often a far better option than taxis. I have to use that card for business expenses and I hate it so much.
  • ryukoposting 3y ago
    As an American, I only use my Amex at businesses I dislike, but am forced to patronize for whatever reason. And groceries. It's pretty good for groceries.
• jwr 3y ago
  > On the consumer side, I tend to see Amex as not widely accepted. Especially drops when traveling. As a B2B SaaS owner, I don't accept Amex, because they make me jump through extra hoops. I process all cards through Braintree, but Amex requires an extra agreement directly with them, and they make the process of signing those agreements really difficult and obnoxious. I have better things to do with my time. I did a quick search, here's a partial list of what was required: · Please provide a scanned copy of Passports for authorized signers and Beneficial Owners. · Please provide a scanned copy of Certificate of incorporation · Please Provide a Completed Multi Currency form, Attached · Please provide a completed and Signed Side Letter, Attached · Please provide a completed and Signed W8 BEN form, Attached (BTW, I am not based in the US, so "W8 BEN" reads like Klingon to me).
  • baq 3y ago
    Piece of advice - read up on that W8-BEN.
    • gizmo 3y ago
      W-8 BEN doesn't apply to him because it's for foreign individuals who receive non-business income. He needs a W-8 BEN-E most likely.
  • KennyBlanken 3y ago
    Imagine being outside the US and thinking "prove you're an incorporated business, prove the major players in your company exist, and fill out this tax form for foreigners" ...is "extra hoops" and "really difficult and obnoxious" > (BTW, I am not based in the US, so "W8 BEN" reads like Klingon to me). If only there were technology to look up what 'W8 BEN' means in seconds
    • dukeyukey 3y ago
      Just saying, the UK has a form of business called a "Sole Trader" where you don't even need to notify the government about until it's tax time. Something like a "Certificate of incorporation" doesn't even exist for that. So yeah, sometimes it fucks things up.
• traceroute66 3y ago
  > Amex as not widely accepted. Especially drops when traveling. Only nutters use Amex whilst travelling (or at least non-US nutters) The double-conversion gotcha is a real killer. Everything gets converted back via USD. So for example, if you have a EUR Amex card and you go to the UK, the AMEX flow is: GBP -> USD -> EUR. And they take, IIRC 3% from you on each leg of that double-conversion.
  • nkhosla 3y ago
    I don’t think this is universally true. I had a CHF Amex for years. Used it by in EUR and USD online and in person.
    • traceroute66 3y ago
      > CHF Amex The Swiss Amex is a bit special anyway because its operated by Swisscard which is a JV between Credit Suisse and AMEX.
  • ericmay 3y ago
    Is that an EU-issued specific phenomenon? Even when I travel to the EU and use Amex (or Apple Card or a number of others) this doesn’t happen. Think it falls under the “no foreign transaction fees” feature set. The only remaining “gotcha” that I run in to is sometimes a shop will try and get you to pay for something at the point of sale in USD instead of the local currency since they can (within reason but exorbitant) set the exchange rate. Tip- pay in local currency.
    • traceroute66 3y ago
      > Is that an EU-issued specific phenomenon? Not as far as I'm aware. It certainly happens with GBP-issued and having briefly looked at some of the agreements, it happens with various Asian issued cards too. To clarify: - If the transaction is in your "home" currency, you get charged in that. - If the transaction is in USD, you get charged in that. - Everything else is subject to double-conversion Example wording below from the GBP card (the last phrase of the last paragraph is the important one). I see they no longer charge double-fees, but you will still loose out on the double currency conversion because there will be a double-spread on there: If we receive a transaction or refund for processing in a foreign currency, we'll convert it into Pounds Sterling on the date it's processed (which may be different to the date of the transaction or refund). This means that the exchange rate used may differ from the rate that applied on the date of your transaction or refund. Exchange rate fluctuations can be significant. If the transaction or refund is in U.S. Dollars, we'll convert it directly into Pounds Sterling. In all other cases, we'll convert it into U.S. Dollars first and then into Pounds Sterling but we'll only charge one non-sterling transaction fee.
• theonlybutlet 3y ago
  Yeah, outside the US, plenty of shops outright refuse Amex.
• nottorp 3y ago
  Back when POS terminals read magnetic stripes, most in Europe didn't even support the Amex stripe in hardware, because it was different :) Even now with contactless and chips (Amex has discovered chips right?) the only places I see Amex logos are 4+ star hotels and very posh restaurants. So it will be kinda useless outside the US.
  • EmptyCoffeeCup 3y ago
    Majority of large retailers in the UK take AMEX. Probably over 75% of my consumer spending goes through my AMEX card - Petrol, Food etc, never had an issue. Can't speak for the rest of Europe.
• ericmay 3y ago
  > On the consumer side, I tend to see Amex as not widely accepted. Especially drops when traveling. I’ve found the main difference being cash only venues versus card+cash accepted. I just got back from Japan and traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kawaguchiko, Miyajima, and it was somewhat rare to find a business that accepted cards but didn’t accept Amex, much to my surprise!
• epc 3y ago
  It matters a lot less than it used to. With the exception of working on the Olympics I’ve been able to use an Amex for most travel expenses since 2000. What was more of a pain was the lack of EMV chips in US credit cards for a long time.
  • Rebelgecko 3y ago
    What did you do for the Olympics?
    • epc 3y ago
      Was a “webmaster” for the Atlanta and Nagano sites and managed an application development team for Sydney.