Seemed interesting considering I thought they were still way behind. Also, the fees were much more reasonable than people think.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@5KRunner wrote:
I’ve still found a few places that won’t accept AmEx, but not as many as even a year ago.
Curiously, my gas and electricity providers (Consumers and DTE respectively) don’t accept AmEx when setting up auto-pay, but do accept Disco.The driver with companies like utility providers is that they lose zero business by not accepting AMEX and are not motivated to do so from a competitive standpoint. You don't have a choice with utility providers and you'll find another way to pay. If this same attitude is held by customer service, customer choice driven businesses, the chance of lost business is a reality.
From my seat, is it really that big a deal? As long as they accept a payment method(s) (and I am not sure here) are we obligated to advocate for all the payment networks? Businesses should have choices?! Have one utility that only accept cash or check (don't pay 30 days your off).
From a pure consumer perspective:
When it comes to rewards / loyalty programs as they're implemented today, there's huge advantages to sticking to one vendor... this applies to airlines, hotels, and yup, credit card issuers too.
Most places around me accept Amex, and the more that do, the more easy it is for me to switch to the Amex MR system vs. Chase UR which I know works basically everywhere in the world frankly... but if most of my work/life is domestic and it frankly has been for the last two decades (4 months in Asia not withstanding) then it costs me basically zero to switch and that's a big benefit to me as a consumer simply from having more choice.
End of the day that's clearly a win for Amex too: Chase / Amex / et. al. are all competing for the same customers and there's a finite number of them for all that number is measured in the millions. Not quite a correct analogy but Amex has more of a blue ocean market than Chase does: Visa is basically already accepted everywhere with very very few exceptions, and Amex is not; domestic parity is a big step forward.
The big question for long-term Amex though is going to be international acceptance: when we can move the number from millions to billions... well, the benefits there are patently obvious.
I've notice a big increase in places that accept them, but from asking merchants why they don't like it has to do with how much they are charged by AMEX vs MC/Visa. Merchants obviously want to maximize savings, so they prefer MC/Visa.
Is anyone a business owner that can confirm if they charge more and how much more... Just out of curiosity...
