I had to go to the local Office Max today and there were signs everywhere stating that they are not currently accepting American Express cards and sorry for the inconvenience. I asked the manager on duty and she was only able to tell me that it was a “corporate decision”.
Any clues? I checked both companies’ websites and found nothing. Could this be related in some way to current tragedy? How?
I don’t USE American Express and it doesn’t especially matter, just curious.
I believe a rather large portion of the American Express corporate headquarters was housed in one of the two WTC towers. For this very same reason an American Express sponsered sporting event is being cancelled. Sorry to be so vague with my facts–this is just off the top of my head.
I dunno. American Express’s main headquarters is the American Express building (durf) which is in the WTC complex & has been evacuated indefinitely; many of their other main corporate ops were in WTC building 7, which no longer exists … However, I’m not aware of any ways that this is affecting their credit card operations.
For most stores who don’t carry AmEx, the decision is strictly financial. AmEx charges the retailer a higher fee per transaction than Visa or MasterCard; perhaps the “corporate decision” was merely “let’s not continue getting gouged by AmEx and make our customers pay another way”. The WTC/DC horrors may have nothing to do with it.
This is probably why. An excerpt:
Like SCSimmons, I’m not sure how this affects AmEx transactions, but it seems like it might have some impact, even if it’s “just” frightening merchants.
The company I work for issues us American Express cards to use for expenses. No one has had any problem using them. American Express cards still works.
I would go with Cajo’s answer. Many merchants don’t accept American Express because of cost. Office Max may have stopped as a tactic to get a lower rate from American Express.
I was in a diner tonight. A computer-printed sign was taped to the entrance door saying they would no longer accept American Express cards. Nothing more than that. It looked like it had been slapped together in a hurry.
So I suppose it IS safe to leave home without it?
I agree with the post by Cajo. What I do when I see that a vendor or establishment does not accept Amex but will take others such as Visa + MC, I ask for a cash discount. It is usually refused.
American Exp. has a center at the world finincail center - I think it’s the one w/ the triangle roof that substained dammage