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[Closed] American Express card - what's the feckin point? (minor rant content)
I applied for an American Express card a while ago cos they had some cashback deal going on, but I've never used it, mainly because very few places seem to accept it. They are introducing a £20 'dormancy fee' if you don't use it over 12 months, so I've cancelled it.
But seriously, maybe it's different in the US/around the world, but here, online and in shops etc, it's pretty much pointless.
It has this stupid section on their site which is called 'where to use your American Express card' - so I thought, 'oh is this a list of major retailers etc'. But no it's just a handy list of things you could buy with a credit card, if they accepted it. Eg.
Petrol
Clothes
Food and Drink
etc etc
🙄
Ridiculous!!! Weird how they are such a household name with major advertising yet there are seemingly a very limited amount of places you can use the damn cards!
They don't take them in America very much either. Visa etc accepted everywhere for small transactions, but Amex only for big ones. Although since the American banking system is so unfathomable to an English visitor they could have some secret use I don't know of.
My corporate card is Amex and it's a nightmare. it's ok overseas but no one accepts it in the UK!
Well, they are working on it (ask john_l...). A lot of it depends on where you shop, most major supermarkets and petrol stations accept it. Many online retailers don't. Most restaurants and hotels accept it. You're right that acceptance in the US is much better. Some parts of Europe are pretty dire, some are virtually everywhere (Croatia for instance).
The point, as you note, is that they tend to have better benefits than many other credit cards; cashback, points, miles, concierge, insurance etc. Of course these cost money - which is subsidised by a higher merchant fee - thus why many places won't take it.
the pub i used to work at didn't take them, but then the merchant fees were brought in to line with the other players so we started to take it. With the lloyds duo card the number of amex cards around has shot up.
With the lloyds duo card
It's because Lloyds acquire merchants for Amex transactions, not directly because of the card.
Our corporate cards are also amex, luckily hotels always seem to take them, it's just putting food & beers on that's the prob. 😉
Fees to the retailer are significantly higher with Amex than with other cards hence most won't accept it.
Use it in tesco for fuel and food - cashback soon adds up.
Although it's free to own, it is annoying that LOTS of places don't take it, but surely you could pop into tesco once a year to save the yearly no-use cost?
DrP
my brother in law is in the US - he gets ridiculous cashback (might even be 3%). Presumably that's being skimmed off the retailer's side rather than Amex just being generous.
Wasn't that not the nine o'clock news sketch about Amex - "put your head between them & go blubbly blubbly blubbly..." ? 🙂
Seems to work at most places over there though (or, rather, I never saw it get refused but he might just have leant where it's accepted)
Give them a year, they are actually begging more e-retailers to accept them so I'd assume they are working on retailers too!