Ditto, I had it as a corporate card for many years. When travelling to the USA…no problem. In Europe and the rest of the world I can only count on it being accepted in major chain hotels.
In the U.S., I’ve found a number of small shops and restaurants that don’t take AmEx. I asked one time, and I was told that AmEx charges their vendors a higher % fee. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but it was something like 5% instead of 3%.
Another one I see signs for is JCB.
My bank gave me two cards on the same account; one is a standard Mastercard and the other, Amex. I get more airmiles on the Amex card so I use it wherever I can, and I pay for almost everything by card these days. Both cards are also contactless as well as PIN.
My usual supermarket, KFC, Maccy D and some shops in town take Amex; many smaller businesses and even some big restaurant chains do not. One problem is that it’s not so easy to tell, and if the Amex card is rejected, it means voiding the transaction and starting again.
Some petrol stations used to make a surcharge for Amex users but that was outlawed; most but not all now take them.
My advice in Europe is to have at least two alternative cards and keep them in different places - not all in the same wallet.
Well, here’s some unsourced numbers online for what it’s worth. (ETA: Sorry, there is a source. These are 2008 numbers from the NFIB Research Foundation)
At places that accept credit cards:
Visa: 100%
Mastercard: 98%
Amex: 60%
Discover: 59%
From my experience, that sounds about right to me, although I could swear I’ve been to a business which accepted Mastercard and not Visa, but that’s an extreme outlier. Typically, businesses accept both. Amex and Discover at 60% seems correct. I’ve been to places, though, that only take Amex. Costco used to be this way (unless you wanted to use a debit card) but they’ve changed since, and when I was traveling Europe in the mid-90s, for some reason there were pockets (like in former Yugoslavia of all places) that were Amex only. I don’t believe that’s the case anymore. I haven’t had an Amex card since those days, and when I lived there in the late 90s and early 00s, I can’t ever remember not having my Visa accepted anywhere that accepts credit cards.
I gave up on American Express when I learned it was far easier to use my Visa card in Japan than my AmEx in Minneapolis.
Those numbers seem extremely low for AMEX and Discover. Just based upon my experience, I would put the numbers at 100% Visa and Mastercard, 98% Discover, and 95% AMEX.
That’s also my impression, and Im talking Europe here - and here I’m disagreeing with Bear_Nenno: In my experience at least, Amex is much less widely accepted in Europe too. It’s not unusual for a place to take Amex, but you can’t take it for granted, and there’s lots of places that will take Visa and MC but not Amex, whereas the reverse is unheard of.
As for Discover, you hardly ever see their logo. Every now and then, but relatively rarely, you see the Diners Club logo, which I think means they take Discover as well since as far as I know Diners Club and Discover share their merchants networks with each other (I got a Diners Club card just recently, that’s why I’m paying attention to it). Still less than American Express and much, much less than Visa and MC. So if you take your list and replace Discover with Diners Club, then I think it pretty much sums up the European situation.
On top of that, of course, you also have the European debit card networks. They originally developed nationally, which is why there’s a separate logo for them in each country (in Germany, for instance, the logo typically says “ec”, a now-onsolete abbreviation for eurocheque, but that checque system doesn’T exist anymore whereas the debit card system is still around). In addition to these national logos, European debit cards now typically carry also the harmonised “maestro” logo, so they can be used across Europe, and in some countries including Germany that’s even more commonly accepted than Visa and MC.
Maestro / Cirrus is not just for Europe, it’s also the default debit card system in Australia, India, China, Russia and a big chunk of south america. Do US banks issue debit cards that use the Maestro / Cirrus network?
Yes. Cirrus is from Mastercard and is widely accepted in the US. (The Visa equivalent is the Plus network.)
My business takes Amex.
Almost every time someone hands over an Amex card, they ask me sheepishly “Do you take American Express?” and they seem relieved when I say yes. They are used to being told No.
That seems really high to me. My wife and I have Discover and I don’t bother using it because so many places I go to don’t accept it.
I agree in general with the comments along the lines that Amex acceptance is highly likely in business/travel oriented purchases including restaurants, and Visa/MC is likely to be accepted if a place accepts credit cards at all, but it’s fairly common for places not to accept Amex, for the simple reason that the merchant fees are higher.
The significant exception, as far as our purchases, used to be Costco. They had a special deal with Amex on fees and accepted only it and not Visa. That was a fair % of our spending right there. However that Amex-Costco deal expired this past June replaced by a Costco-Visa deal and now Costco only accepts Visa. Otherwise I’ve occasionally gone to restaurants that accept only Amex but it isn’t common.
I would guess the old Amex charge cards are now a small % of their business. Our Amex credit card is 5% back on gas, supermarket and pharmacy unlimited though requires $6k in charges each year before reaching that level, no fee. Paying for everything possible (eg. health insurance, phone etc) with Amex the first couple of months of the billing year then just using it for the 5% categories comes out a good deal. They don’t offer that particular card now but haven’t cancelled ours, another current one is fairly similar. Charge v credit is immaterial because we never run balances. But the cash back is worthwhile.
An AMEX transaction generally costs a merchant like myself a couple of extra percentage points. For example your use of a VISA or MC card to buy a $100 item in my store would cost me $4.00. If you used a AMEX card, $6.00. If you used a Discover card, $5.00 (roughly… to make a point). It adds up!
It does depend where you live. I think your impression is quite accurate in midtown Manhattan, while in Debuque, Iowa I would think pulykamell’s 60% acceptance rate is way too high a guess.
No, we’re not in disagreement at all. My statement was more an expression of my frustration with American Express being less accepted in this part of of America than it is all over Europe. Its pretty iffy in Europe, but practically nonexistant here in Alaska. Even big chain restaurants and many fast food places don’t take it. These are big name places one would expect to accept everything.
Oh well, I still love my Amex Platinum. Great benefits, $200 annually of free inflight purchases, access to first class lounges, concierge, special event offers, travel discounts, automatic insurance on rentals, 100% return policy on all purchases regardless of reason (if the store wont take it back, Amex, will just refund you), roadside assistance, etc. Only $475 a year for 2 cards.
Amex in my limited experience over 25 years used to be more widely accepted in Europe than Visa/MC, but that seems to no longer be the case. I carry both and use the one with the best foreign-currency deal as much as I can, I think that was the Visa last time.
I can’t say how widespread Amex is accepted in Thailand. I’ve only ever used Visa and MasterCard. But I have seen the Amex sign in some places, so it’s not unheard of.
Why exactly would a place take Visa but not Mastercard? And what businesses has anyone been to that didn’t take Mastercard?
I’m not sure I’ve personally seen any, but I have seen Visa or MasterCard commercials where they feature some business and brag that only the one card is accepted and not the other.