AMEX Needs to Think Local

[atd1970]

Day from hell with Amex. I have had my ED for 2 months, and never had an acceptance issue. Admittedly, I have have always used the CC at "chain" stores.

Today was a nightmare. I tried to use my Amex at "local" stores and restaurants, and was informed 9/10 times that Amex was not accepted.

This is not an issue because I have other CC, but why should I even have to ask?

Amex can never be the "only card that you need in your wallet"

[Anonymous]

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@atd1970 wrote:

Day from hell with Amex. I have had my ED for 2 months, and never had an acceptance issue. Admittedly, I have have always used the CC at "chain" stores.

Today was a nightmare. I tried to use my Amex at "local" stores and restaurants, and was informed 9/10 times that Amex was not accepted.

This is not an issue because I have other CC, but why should I even have to ask?

Amex can never be the "only card that you need in your wallet"

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No offense meant but it's been long known that AMEX is not accepted everywhere and that you need other cards.  Acceptance can vary depending on your locale as you'll find many more stores accepting iit n urban areas vs rural.  As long as AMEX charges higher swipe fees then they will never be accepted at the same number of stores as Visa/MasterCard so you shouldn't obtain one of their cards with expecting as wide range of acceptance.

[weehoo]

Amex is going down the tubes

[Anonymous]

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@weehoo wrote:

Amex is going down the tubes

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Hardly

[NRB525]

While it has been rare for me, unless you carry a wad of cash, AX alone does have risk of embarrassment.

The AX argument is; their main list of good customers spend so many multiples of VISA and MC cardholders, that the individual small businesses who opt out are too marginal to change the central business model. Whether the AX pricing for small merchants is improving I can't say, but they do have a marketing arm for small business.

[Anonymous]

Unlikely, since they're a publicly traded company had have ample cash reserves. With that said, they've got to get accepted at more locations. If they don't, they eventually will go down the tubes. There is no reason for the average joe to choose AmEx over a Visa, Mastercard for everyday purchases.

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@weehoo wrote:

Amex is going down the tubes

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[atd1970]

Agreed.

But as a business model, Amex is failing.

As a consumer of the product, I should not have to ask "Do you take Amex?"

The problem with Restaurants is that the server will take any CC you give them, walk away, swipe the card, and walk back and say "sorry, we don't accept this card."

This is embarrassing.

[Gunnar419]

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@atd1970 wrote:

Day from hell with Amex. I have had my ED for 2 months, and never had an acceptance issue. Admittedly, I have have always used the CC at "chain" stores.

Today was a nightmare. I tried to use my Amex at "local" stores and restaurants, and was informed 9/10 times that Amex was not accepted.

This is not an issue because I have other CC, but why should I even have to ask?

Amex can never be the "only card that you need in your wallet"

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Although Irish is right that you should have at least been generally aware of Amex's uneven acceptance, I sympathize with you completely. I live in a rural area and about the only places I can use Amex here are at gas stations or (kind of ironically) the very smallest individually owned businesses that use services like Square for cc processing. Unfortunately with the ones using Square the purchase never codes properly for any extra rewards. Just part of being an Amex holder.

It is unfortunate and I hope Amex can find a way to get greater acceptance, but in the meantime it's something we have to live with. Local merchants hate Amex and aren't about to change their attitude.

There's something I don't get about Amex's infamously high swipe fees (the reason so many small businesses don't take their cards). Supposedly the big fees are to fund superior rewards, but these days Amex reward programs aren't any better for most of us ordinary cardholders than the rewards on the other three types of card. Don't get that.

[atd1970]

fitchaber10

Are you being serious LOL

Banks only need to hold 10% in reserve for monies that they are lending, and debt to the bank creates new money.

[Anonymous]

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@atd1970 wrote:

Agreed.

But as a business model, Amex is failing.

As a consumer of the product, I should not have to ask "Do you take Amex?"

The problem with Restaurants is that the server will take any CC you give them, walk away, swipe the card, and walk back and say "sorry, we don't accept this card."

This is embarrassing.

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You realize don't you that AMEX has been around for a long time and had never been as widely accepted as other cards right?  Not sure what makes you think you shouldn't have to ask.  They have never marketed themselves as a replacement for Visa or Mastercard.  You can't complain about something that you voluntarily applied for and was widely known beforehand.  It's not like all of a sudden less places started accepting their cards.