Why amex not accepted

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American Express is one of the four major U. And for many years, AmEx lagged behind all of them in terms of merchant acceptance.

As a shopper, may have heard the phrase, "I'm sorry, we don't take American Express. The main reason: Compared with the other payment networks, AmEx tended to charge merchants higher interchange fees , aka "swipe fees.

This varies depending on multiple factors, including card type, merchant type , and transaction volume and value. Unlike with debit card interchange fees, which are capped, federal law does not regulate or limit credit card swipe fees. They are typically set by the payment networks, and American Express in the past has been more expensive for merchants to accept, with swipe fees as much as one percentage point higher than the competition as recently as At Experian, one of our priorities is consumer credit and finance education.

This post may contain links and references to one or more of our partners, but we provide an objective view to help you make the best decisions. For more information, see our Editorial Policy. The American Express card isn't accepted by every merchant, but it can be used at a growing number of locations in the United States and around the world. American Express offers many types of credit cards for both consumers and small business owners.

Yet sometimes you'll encounter merchants that accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover, but don't take American Express cards. Nevertheless, American Express has been aggressively adding new merchants to its network in recent years, including over 1. If you have an American Express card, then you may have visited merchants who accept other credit cards, but not your Amex. The reason has to do with the interchange fees charged by the credit card payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.

These fees are a percentage of each credit card transaction that a merchant has to pay to the payment network. American Express imposes a slightly higher fee than its competitors, and some merchants choose not to accept its cards as a result.

American Express is both a payment network and a major credit card issuer. Credit card issuers primarily make money through interest charges and a portion of the interchange fees.

Many American Express cards are actually not credit cards but charge cards. That means that the cardholder is required to pay the entire statement balance in full each month, so Amex typically receives no interest charges from these products. Furthermore, American Express cards almost always provide competitive rewards in the form of cash back or miles and points toward travel rewards. With both the higher costs of offering rewards and less income from customers paying interest, American Express' business model relies on charging merchants higher interchange fees.

Why You Should Always Have a Backup Credit Card If you primarily use an American Express card, then you should probably carry a backup card from a different payment network for when you encounter a merchant that doesn't accept American Express.

But regardless of which card you use, it's always a good idea to have one or more backup credit cards. For example, your primary card could become lost, stolen or compromised in some way, leaving you without a credit card until it's replaced.

Having more than one card that you manage responsibly can also add to your positive credit history and improve your credit score. American Express cards are accepted by millions of merchants, but not at every store that accepts credit cards. You can save the frustration of your American Express card being rejected by taking a look at the unofficial website whoacceptsamex.

We used it to check out a few retailers that you might not realise will happily take your Amex as payment and uncover a few that you might be caught short with. Sky is one of the biggest telecoms companies in the UK, so you might think it would accept all forms of payment. The Post Office started accepting American Express in April across its 11, branch network, making it one of the largest UK retailers to accept Amex.

Poundland started accepting American Express in March as more and more squeezed middle class shoppers turned to the discount retailer in search of better value for money. McDonalds, however, will happily take your Amex for a burger and fries.