What gets me about American Express, is that you think it would be good for USD transactions. But no a massive fee of 3%! Halifax clarity card is much better for USD transactions and other overseas transactions.
It's very widely accepted for hotels & food, particularly at the higher end of the market. for cheaper, independent places, the fee (which I believe is negotiable) puts some merchants off.
is that like a wee subtle brag right there 😉
The flat interchange fee for debit went recently - last couple of years from memory. The issuers hated it - max of 50p and you could buy a Ferrari.
Issuers rates are capped at 30bps credit and 20bps for debit across the EU and EEA
Bps?
is that like a wee subtle brag right there
ha, not these days. I go to the occasional posh place, and lots of cheap places, I use instinct as to which card to pull out and I'm normally right 🙂
As per most others I have one for the cashback, which is pretty good.
Its accepted in most large places, but you couldnt have one as your only credit card, you need a mastercard or visa as a fallback.
Bps?
Basis Points - 30bps=0.30%
mccraque is obviously in the business ;o)
My mate worked for two years on the rules for calculating fees on card transactions. There are a lot of rules!
We are on 0.65% credit card and 0.25% debit card with a 1p transaction fee .
That's as low as I could find and haggle. If the numbers mccraque quotes are correct How do World pay and everyone else manage to charge more?
Is that the costs the Worldpay are paying someone?
How many people are involved between a customer putting their card in the machine and me receiving the money?
by the way - if you find somewhere you want to use the card but can't, put the details here and the Amex merchant team follows them up
zippykona - the 0.30% cap is the cap on the level of fee that is paid to the bank that has issued the card (ie Barclaycard, Nat West, TSB, HSBC etc). WP are then making approx 0.35%, less some fees that they might be paying to Visa/MC (the schemes), plus any monthly fees they are charging you for your card machine etc.
There are four parties involved - you (the merchant), the cardholder, the issuing bank and the acquirer (WP). Unless it's an Amex transaction, then there are three as Amex are the issuer and acquirer.
So Amex should be cheaper really.
Anyway our costs are lower than a year ago.
Another 3 cheers for the eu.
As for not taking Amex our machine simply won't accept them.
On a related issue - it amazes me how many places in the UK don't accept cards AT ALL. Sure - it costs the merchant a small percentage, but how much business do they lose from people simply not shopping there?
I was doing some work in London last, in a civil service building a stone's throw from parliament. I had no food or water with me - why would I when I'm surrounded by the biggest city in the UK? The little Costa franchise in the hall would only take cash. I starved all day because I only had 37p in my pocket. (I needed to be escorted in and out of the building, v high security, so once I was in I wasn't moving.) 🙄
I starved all day because I only had 37p in my pocket. (I needed to be escorted in and out of the building, v high security, so once I was in I wasn't moving.)
If only some one would invent a way of easily getting cash in big city - some sort of vending device would possibly do the job. But we can only dream of such a time!
