@tinuviel wrote:There are a few local, "mom & pop" type of establishments that we do business with that don't accept Amex. The merchant fees are higher than Visa/MC, cutting too deeply into their profit margin. I'm all too happy to use my MC at places like this, as I understand how hard it can be to keep a small business afloat.
+1
@Anonymous wrote:Funny thing is, often times the merchants don't realize how little it is, especially when compared to losing a sale.
$100 purchase will cost a merchant $1.62 from Visa, $1.80 from MC, and $2.19 from AmEx. That's $0.57 more. Again, that's nothing when you consider a lost sale. Sure, most people will just use their Visa or MC (which again, MC cost them more too, getting nitpicky aren't we?) but there still are a number who will just not purchase from them.
I know I don't go to stores that don't accept AmEx, not because I don't have a Visa, but because I don't want to be told which form I will be paying in. If I want to pay in pennies, I will pay in pennies.
On top of that, statistcally, AmEx users tend to spend more, thus making up for the extra lost.
If they actually cared about the difference of $0.57 as they claim, then they would refuse credit cards altogether and take only cash, which has no fees, or debit, which is capped at less than 1/3 of the Visa cost. Sure, $0.57 adds up after thousands of dollar... but so does the $1 more that they pay to accept Visa over debit cards...
+1....I went to a mom&pop dinning place last week and they didn't accept Amex either. I was perfectly fine with that as I have a MC/Visa as a backup. It was in a business area cause of the hotels/conventions. Somehow we continued talking and I gave her my .02 and explained to her about the potential sales increase or lost of sales by not accepting Amex as alot of business clients dine out and using their Amex cards - whether it's a Charge, Revolver etc....and the owner explained to me about the high fees etc...
You broke it down nicely and I wish these small business owners do the math and see that it's nickel and dimes vs. increases in sales.
I am also a small business owner who and we accept all cards types at our locations. Leave no rock unturned is my business model when it comes to sales and accepting all forms of payments, including pennies 
@Imhotrodcrazy wrote:I received my new AMEX card on Dec. 14th. I started using it in order to get my $100 sign up fee after spending $1000 in 3 months. Well, in the last 3 weeks my card has been rejected by 2 merchants. They stated that they won't deal with AMEX because their fees are too high. In those 2 cases, I would have spent about $300. It surprised me, but it will just take a little longer to get to that $1000 mark in 3 months. But I am learning who takes it, and who doesn't. Just thought I would share my story with all of you.
It does suck, alot of small business's do not accept AMEX, due to high charge % AMEX charges.
tntexans72 wrote:
+1....I went to a mom&pop dinning place last week and they didn't accept Amex either. I was perfectly fine with that as I have a MC/Visa as a backup. It was in a business area cause of the hotels/conventions. Somehow we continued talking and I gave her my .02 and explained to her about the potential sales increase or lost of sales by not accepting Amex as alot of business clients dine out and using their Amex cards - whether it's a Charge, Revolver etc....and the owner explained to me about the high fees etc...
You broke it down nicely and I wish these small business owners do the math and see that it's nickel and dimes vs. increases in sales.
I am also a small business owner who and we accept all cards types at our locations. Leave no rock unturned is my business model when it comes to sales and accepting all forms of payments, including pennies
Including Checks?!? That's absurd!!! 
@SimonP wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
IIf they actually cared about the difference of $0.57 as they claim, then they would refuse credit cards altogether and take only cash, which has no fees, or debit, which is capped at less than 1/3 of the Visa cost. Sure, $0.57 adds up after thousands of dollar... but so does the $1 more that they pay to accept Visa over debit cards...
One more thing is these are business expenses, and merchants can deduct it from tax. I am sure they are more worried about the return policy than the transaction surcharge of Amex. In my area, those who do not accept Amex are little stores and gray gas stations where prefer cash! These are the stores that may be falsifying their income and tax return.
Well, on the assumption that on some products they may only make 5% profit anyway and I'm just going to use a $0.50 Amex extra surcharge for easy math, on that $100 item that's 10% basically lost. Even if they can deduct that as a business expense, they're still losing more money than they would otherwise by a fairly substantial margin.
The numbers get far worse if you start using items under 100 dollars, say 10 dollars and this case they have roughly 20% profit, now we're looking at 25% loss. This math is ugly, would you want to reduce your possible profit by 25% just to accept Amex in this scenario? Could you imagine taking a 25% paycut on your current gross income as an individual? That's what we're talking about from a small business perspective... and in my case the answer would be: "Hell no! Amex has got to go!"
An expense being tax deductible doesn't make it free. If Amex doesn't work for a particular business model, it's really no big deal.