Insist on paying with Amex...even in rural areas?

[Anonymous]

In the land of country music...heck even our food trucks take AMEX and we don't have to wear our shoes! But then again they do charge us extra for them fancy toothpicks...lol

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Perhaps I'm missing something that should be obvious...? Why would anyone limit themselves to only Amex? Can someone fill me in on whatever it is I'm missing? Should I only be using my Amex? 

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From a vendor's perspective, the one reason why someone should use Amex is they'll go to bat for you with disputes, even if you're in the wrong.  At my local business owner's coffee the #1 complaint I hear every 2 weeks is about an Amex dispute over an idiot customer not understanding policy and still winning it.

Another reason why Amex is popular is their extended warranty is (or at least used to be) one of the easier ones ot take advantage of.  As I've been credit limited for a number of years I can't say if this is still true but my old Amex card from way back in the day always backed up my extended warranty claims with an easy submission process.  I'm sure other cards are now just as easy but they were the easiest for me.

From my experience, the customers who demand to use Amex are just the ones who want to feel fancy throwing the metal card on my shiny scratch-free glass counters.   Then again, the Amazon card is also metal so I have no idea why Amex metal cardholders think they're fancy, lol.

[UncleB]

To be fair, one extremely valid reason Amex acceptance might be important to some people does come to mind... Corporate card users. 

If you're traveling on business and have been issued an Amex Corporate card, anything you can't/don't put on your Corporate card comes out of your pocket until you can get reimbursed (or at least it did with my company). 

For an extended trip this could add up, not to mention the voucher paperwork was quite a bit easier for Corporate card charges versus out-of-pocket expenses.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the starting of this thread ... I moved from a metro area to a small town of around 3K ... and the grocery store in town does take AMEX, which was a surprise. 

Gas stations too, which is nice. 

Funny thing, a fairly well known, regional, general merchandise store (Farm and Fleet if you're familiar) does NOT take AMEX, which I find odd and somewhat amusing. 

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I appreciate the starting of this thread ... I moved from a metro area to a small town of around 3K ... and the grocery store in town does take AMEX, which was a surprise. 

Gas stations too, which is nice. 

Funny thing, a fairly well known, regional, general merchandise store (Farm and Fleet if you're familiar) does NOT take AMEX, which I find odd and somewhat amusing. 

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I had a similar experience with Great Clips... they only take MasterCard and Visa in my area, which was unexpected (they aren't exactly small).

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

To be fair, one extremely valid reason Amex acceptance might be important to some people does come to mind... Corporate card users. 

If you're traveling on business and have been issued an Amex Corporate card, anything you can't/don't put on your Corporate card comes out of your pocket until you can get reimbursed (or at least it did with my company). 

For an extended trip this could add up, not to mention the voucher paperwork was quite a bit easier for Corporate card charges versus out-of-pocket expenses.

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100%

I'm the Controller for a company with over 50 users on our Amex program. We actually switched to a Mastercard program due to this.

We did later find that the Amex benefits outweighed this inconvenience and went back to them. I pushed for going back. From a manager's standpoint Amex is a pleasure to deal with. 

[Anonymous]

I love all the different points of view in here!

I, personally, have come across one place that didn't accept Amex and that was a parking garage. They had a sticker for all the others including discover but I foolishly tried to use my BCE to pay anyway. After getting declined, I got a free pass to get out the garage although I had a plethora of other accepted cardfs in my wallet. It was a bit of a win.

I wouldn't stop going to a place that doesn't accept Amex as I'm well aware they aren't accepted everywhere. I would avoid a place that doesn't take cards at all though. My barber even accepts cards and he's not in a big national chain or anything. Just a regular guy in a barbershop. 

[JustBPatient]

Just my 2 cents.  I am a big AMEX fan BUT, I would not let that dictate where I shop.  The cards I use work for me, not the other way around.

[joltdude]

Tend to run into smaller food establishments not wanting to take Amex... Along with some gas stations around here...  and then theres always Costco =) (Actually im glad they moved away from Amex.. in my early part of credit building.. Costco only would take my debit card and my bank actually charged a network fee of 2$ per transaction at costco! (Peoples United Bank if curious) Plus the 150$ gas holds were a bit rough..... So it wasn't cost effective to get gas at Costco....

That said.. Discover seems to be going for acceptance in smaller restraunts that previously would only take visa/mc...  Get that Amex from a customers point of view is a great card to support you as a customer but as a vendor... they tend to always side with a customer even when the evidence proves them to be in the wrong.... As a merchant id never accept good ole Amex... 

Even though this is supposed to be against the card processor/issuing bank rules (The merchant cant flat out encourage you to use a different network card if they accept that card) ... Still see restraunts kind of looking at you with disdain if you pick Amex over the other cards.. Smaller biz especially.... Ever ask a smaller merchant which card theyd prefer to take if you have a relationship with the merchant? Betcha they will say something other than Amex... 

[Anonymous]

I am in a rural area and Blains Farm & Fleetdoes not take Amex and they only started taking Discover a few years ago. Surprisingly tho, it is accepted nearly everywhere else. Mom and Pop stores, dining, etc.