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Yeah, processing credit cards is an absolute pain for vendors. American Express are probably the worst for vendors.
by coherentpony 13y ago
Yeah, processing credit cards is an absolute pain for vendors. American Express are probably the worst for vendors.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoI'm an American Express cardholder and spend several hundred thousand dollars a year. If you're a small business, startup, someone I like, whatever, I go out of my way to pay you money with Dwolla or a debit card because of the fees. I'll even overnight a check if its a significant amount and I trust you.
- stickydink 13y agoFrom someone not from the US; so why do you have an American Express card?
- binarysolo 13y agoThey offer best perks, rewards, and customer protection (at the cost of the merchant who accepts them).
- nomolurcin 13y agoThere are some really great rewards for using it, moreso than other cards.
- UnoriginalGuy 13y agoThey charge more in fees, and also pass on more as cashback/bonuses/prizes to customers. For example, a visa/mastercard might be able to kick back 1~2% for cashback. American Express might be able to go 2~3%. This is also why a lot of places don't accept Amex, the fees are higher and from the vendor's perspective they offer nothing in return. PS - The whole credit card system is too expensive, and inefficient, but that's what happens when three or four companies run the whole game.
- commandar 13y agoAmEx also offers a lot of other benefits for the consumer like lengthier chargeback periods and free extended warranties. They'll provide warranty coverage for a year past the manufacturer's warranty on items purchased with the card for no cost; it's the reason I put all my big ticket electronics purchases on my AmEx.
- greghinch 13y agoA lot of Visa/Mastercards also offer warranty coverage for at least a year. Not sure why they don't promote this better, but if you look in that little packet of fine print materials they give you, it's usually in there.
- ericd 13y agoThe Chase Sapphire Preferred is generally competitive with the AmEx Gold Premier Rewards card, is a Visa, has lower fees, no foreign transaction fee, and has better transfer partners, on average (though they don't do their special transfer bonus, if you ever take advantage of those). I wrote a little webapp to help compare card rewards: http://www.creditcardcomparer.org http://www.creditcardcomparer.org I still need to add the other side benefits like warranties and the like, though, where the AmEx is generally better.
- rubyrescue 13y agoTf you live outside of the US or just travel a lot, and have a US account, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is THE card to have. it saves me a lot of money. i like it slightly better than the Starwood Amex just because i can use it more places.
- ericd 13y agoThe Starwood AmEx also has a foreign transaction fee of 2.7%, I believe, so there's no real reason to use it outside the US, unless you're at a Starwood hotel and getting a huge bonus that way. In the US it's pretty excellent, though.
- Zolt 13y agoFor me, who has also pushed through hundreds of thousands of business dollars, it is all about the rewards program. It was not uncommon for me to receive several thousand dollars of Home Depot and other gift cards per year.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoI actually just bought a $1000 85 gallon water heater from home depot using Amex rewards points.
- eclipticplane 13y agoI use my Amex personally for both the rewards as well as extra consumer protection. Example: I recently had to re-purchase a plane ticket three times due to extenuating circumstances that the normal travel insurance would not have covered. American Express refunded both tickets from a five minute phone call. Buying the tickets with Amex saved me $1k.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoBecause its extremely handy when I'm traveling from the states to Europe.
- elteto 13y agoBased on my experience, American Express has outstanding customer service. I have also heard that they tend to be rather aggressive in their fraud protection program and they way they deal with chargebacks, often taking the side of the cardholder rather than the merchant's.
- cpeterso 13y agoDon't debit card transactions have fees, too? I've heard conflicting accounts. I try to pay with cash, when I can.
- jevinskie 13y agoI believe debit card fees are lower than credit card fees.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nhangen 13y agoBut great for customers. I use my Amex on everything, and often won't shop where I know it won't be accepted. I just love the company.
- MattRogish 13y agoAbsolutely. Would love to read a case study how they did that. 99% of my purchases are on AMEX.
- gcb0 13y agoOut of the us visa used to win that title. Not sure now. This also makes me wonder what kind of deal Costco have... Since i doubt they bend to those things easily.
- takeda64 13y agoAmEx has special Costco card, which you can only use with valid Costco membership (it automatically renews it per year) and the cashback you are receiving will be in a form of coupon given yearly which you can only spend back at Costco.
- taftster 13y agoYou can cash the check at the customer service desk. But yes, you can only redeem the cash-back coupon at Costco.
- sfall 13y agocostco probably gets discounted processing rates for being the exclusive cc vendor