# Is American Express accepted as well as Visa & MC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210 "2016-09-17T23:30:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/81 "2016-09-25T06:02:24Z")
Back to the OP, it seems to be highly regional. I recently moved from a very rich city in Washington to a moderately poor one in Oregon. Among other minor culture shocks: nearly everyone took Amex in Redmond; I’d guess about a third of businesses here (and effectively a hundred percent of “mom and pop” businesses) won’t. I used the Amex as my primary card because I got large amounts of cash back with it (Amex Blue), but I’ve had to switch to a Visa since we moved. It’s particularly disconcerting on Apple Pay – the charge “goes through” and does the “bing” and “check mark”…then a few seconds later the merchant will say “is that some kind of American Express? We don’t take that.” It’s happened so often I’m probably going to have to switch that card, too. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/82 "2016-09-25T10:05:09Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Thanks. Good to know. Then I guess the continued higher fees for the merchant is just maintaining tradition. There might be conspicuous consumption at work. The only thing that allows American Express to get away with their higher fees is the cachet that their clienetel is particularly wealthy; that’s pretty much the only selling point they have to make merchants accept their higher fees. But where does that cachet come from? Partially from the tradition that in the past, you had to pay off your American Express bill in full, meaning that it was a card that was attractive mostly for wealthy clients. That is also supported by the high annual fees that American Express has a reputation for. In that sense, the high membership fees justify the high merchant fees, and vice versa. Economically, credit cards are a good example for a two-sided market: The same product competes on two different markets (cardholders and merchants) at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/83 "2016-09-25T11:16:06Z")
I use Amex wherever it is accepted, and have a Visa card for other times. Over 95% of my credit card usage is Amex, so it is heavily accepted here (Atlanta). Exceptions are: [ul] [li]the high school online payment system (lunches, tickets and more)[/li][li]a couple of doctors[/li][li]our gas provider[/li][li]dog kennel[/li][li]parking [/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/84 "2016-09-25T12:06:58Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Way back when that was true. Although American Express will give you a traditional Green Card if you insist, Amex does virtually no promotion of those types of cards any more. And there are some corporate purchasing cards that work that way, but basically Amex has found that leaving money on the table is not in their best interest, and almost all of the cards that it promotes to the general consumer graciously allow the consumer to pay off over time and to pay Amex interest. Sort of- my Amex allows me to pay individual charges over a certain amount ( I think it’s $100) over time. Smaller charges have to be paid off each month. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/85 "2016-09-25T17:32:28Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Sort of- my Amex allows me to pay individual charges over a certain amount ( I think it’s $100) over time. Smaller charges have to be paid off each month. My Amex (Blue Cash) works like any other credit card. I can pay off as little as I want each month, subject to the minimum monthly payment. ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210/86 "2016-09-27T15:57:07Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It appears that all of those cites confirm that American Express charges higher fees than Visa or Mastercard. I don’t think anyone was disputing that. What people _were_ questioning was the statement from **Annie-Xmas** that “Visa and MasterCard charge the merchant less if they don’t take AmEx.” Now that may be true, but like others, I’d like to see confirmation. As a shop owner, I was presented with several options in my contract. Every option that allowed me to accept American Express had higher charges on everything else. The options without American Express where cheaper, since hardly anyone uses AmEx here in Ireland I choose the cheaper one. This may have changed, since I signed the contract in 2007, but every renewal (which is verbal) didn’t include AmEx either. However, it may have something to do with that if you wanted to accept AMEX that you needed to deal with AMEX directly and their package was higher for accepting Visa. This [cite](https://www.merchantmaverick.com/how-to-save-on-american-express-credit-card-processing-with-optblue-pricing/) or this [cite](https://www.merchantmaverick.com/the-complete-guide-to-credit-card-processing-rates-and-fees/)might help or explain some things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-american-express-accepted-as-well-as-visa-mc/766210.md?page=4)