How many see merchants asking not to use Amex?

[galahad15]

AFAIK, some doctor's offices will not accept Amex, just MC and VISA?

[Loquat]

The only place in my area that I found that doesn't accept Amex is Papa Murphy's Take 'n Bake Pizza, quite a few (not all) Subway restauraunts, and a mom & pop Chinese restauraunt...but they don't descriminate...they don't accept any credit or check (cash only).  

[OmarR]

Costco does not take AMEX.

But than they also do not take Discover or MC in the U.S.

In Canada, it's only MC.

[Adkins]

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@OmarR wrote:

Costco does not take AMEX.

But than they also do not take Discover or MC in the U.S.

In Canada, it's only MC.

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Costco is unusual because up until last year, Costco ONLY took Amex in their stores. Their contact was up with Amex and Citi won Costco's business instead, so now Costco only takes Visa credit cards in store (you can still use whatever debit card you like or any credit card online).

[Anonymous]

My favorite fast food NO Amex NO Disco at the A&W.      My appliance repair guy No Amex.  My Jeep repair shop takes anything but not real fond of Amex so I sometimes slip him a Citi Dc which I bet costs more.

Our biz    deals in very  large ticket sales from contracts. We do not accept credit cards. -0- to $200 check, $200 to $1,000 cashiers check  or wire, over $1,000 wire transfer only   95% of  our sales are over $1,000.   We do not accept cash.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Amex is the official card of small businesses everywhere they even have an endorsed holiday in a November every year "Small Business Saturday".

I would say 95% of merchants accept Amex. You'll run into a few here and there that don't but they cover most businesses.

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The official number is around 66% I believe. 

[Anonymous]

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@Snipper117 wrote:
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).

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You need a new processor then. 

You should be taking debit cards at 0.005 + $0.25 and your processor overcharges for AMEX transactions, which should be in the 2.7% to 3% range. 

[Snipper117]

Do you have the names of any processors charging 0.005 for all debit card transactions? Currently for some debt transactions my fee is 0.05 but not for every single one. I know these percents can fluctuate with many other factors being involved. When I said 1.67% that’s the bottom line number including all fees (not including the .10 - .22 per swipe).

[Anonymous]

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@Snipper117 wrote:
Do you have the names of any processors charging 0.005 for all debit card transactions? Currently for some debt transactions my fee is 0.05 but not for every single one. I know these percents can fluctuate with many other factors being involved. When I said 1.67% that’s the bottom line number including all fees (not including the .10 - .22 per swipe).

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The Durbin Amendment sets interchange fee rates for debit cards ran over debit networks. You're better off forcing your customers who use a debit card to run their card as debit. 

[drboxing]

I ordered Chinese take out a few weeks ago and they didn’t take Amex. Other than that I’ve had no problems finding merchants who takes Amex.