How many see merchants asking not to use Amex?

[Anonymous]

You'd run ito an issue trying to use it in Europe though. Where I'm from (Germany) pretty much nobody will accept Amex.

[Anonymous]

Sorry Mods if it's a violation for bumping an old thread, forgive me. At my work we only take Visa and MasterCard whereas in the beginning we took all four. One big pet peeve of mine is when people make statements that you don't want to take my card, I'll make you regret it and I'll never come here again. To me, that's petty. Yeah I get you want your points as much as I enjoy getting my cash back, but if I go to a place and they say sorry cash only or only Visa and MasterCard(I have a Discover Card), I have no problem putting away my Discover and using my Visa or MC, or paying in cash if need be(Hence why I keep cash on me). It blows my mind that some people will throw a fit because they can't use their card. 

[Shadowfactor]

Everywhere in Ohio that I’ve seen takes AMEX the only times I run into trouble using it is in the Caribbean when I go for work

[mongstradamus]

There are quite a few places around here that just straight up don't even take amex. Its usually VISA or MC only if they take credit cards at all

[ChargedUp]

I've had some smaller restaurants balk at pulling anything but V/MC. Owner of a Chinese joint in San Mateo, CA threw a mini temper tantrum because I pulled my PRG out for the check. (And they have the Amex logo on the front counter!) A couple other places were somewhat less dramatic over their preferred payment method.

Strangely enough, there's a car wash/lube joint in Santa Rosa that is V/MC/AX and refuses Discover.

[SkyCommander]

The whole merchant has Amex stickers but doesn’t take Amex gets old fast. I run into those.

I can -almost- use Amex everyday. Some restaurants use Square and they don’t seem to code as a restaurant for my PRG. I use my Hyatt and it codes as restaurants so I’ll get my double points.

[MrDisco99]

I've fulfilled spend requirements on several Amex cards this year and spent a few months using Amex exclusively for everything.  I can count on one hand the number of places I've had to fall back on a Visa/MC...

a local bar

a local restaurant

a local pool supply store

online bill pay for water company

online bill pay for power company

online bill pay for car insurance

a restaurant in Nashville

...and that's it.  OK, two hands.

[Snipper117]

I own a small business here in upstate New York and we prefer not to accept Amex cards.

When you have a merchant account they charge a fee depending on the type of card that you use. For example using a debit card to pay for a purchase the credit card processing company wil generally charge you the lowest % vs. using a credit card since the funds are available and the risk of fraud, return, chargeback etc is much smaller. Obviously this number varies depending on the credit card processing company you use.

Using my business as an example our charges we process for catering purposes can sometimes be in the 10-20k range. For A visa debit card transaction on 10k we are charged about 1.67% which is $167. Someone using a Amex card for the same 10k transaction our current rates with our processing company charges closer to 3.7% which would be a $370 fee. Taking Amex over and over for these purchases would obviously hurt our bottom line tremendously which is why we prefer not to accept Amex.

I will say Amex has been great in visiting us at our location (flattering actually) to view our statements and see if we can work this number down.

Obviously we would never turn away business of the customer Prefered or only as Amex (which is never the case anyway).

[Schwartzinator]

I run into a fair amount of restaurants that either won't take AmEx or make a fuss about me using it. Most retail places I go to though are happy to take whatever form of payment I offer. 

[Blackswizz750]

95% of places I have been or ordered from take AMEX with out an issue. My kids soccer club will not take it anymore but most small businesses and big box stores take them. Heck, most of my credit and charges where through AMEX in 2017.