# Why did Neiman Marcus only accept American Express? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 1, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480 "2011-11-01T13:03:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/1 "2011-11-01T13:03:35Z")
Maybe this is a IMHO question, because it makes little logical sense. Why did Neiman Marcus not accept credit cards other than American Express? I realize that American Express is supposed to be all fancy and stuff, but I don’t exactly understand the mechanism of how rejecting payment options from willing customers gains you more money. Can someone please break that down to me in logical steps. 1. Offer to sell stuff 2. Reject common method of payment 3. ?? 4. Profit! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/2 "2011-11-01T13:09:32Z")
Supposed to be exclusivity, I guess. So you feel SPESHUL! because you have an Amex and can shop at Neiman Marcus. Personally, I hate Amex. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/3 "2011-11-01T13:12:19Z")
As **Anaamika** says, the point was you could be assured that the people shopping there were rich enough to have an AmEx (or pay for designer clothes with cash). That way your discerning shopper wouldn’t have to rub shoulders with someone who should more rightly be shopping at Sears. If you can get dozens of rich people to shop there by making them feel special you don’t really care if you lose hundreds of poor(er) people. That calculus has obviously changed in the current economic climate. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/4 "2011-11-01T13:14:16Z")
I always assumed it was because they were trying to promote the use of their own, more profitable Neiman Marcus credit card. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/5 "2011-11-01T13:16:25Z")
But consider this. Is Amex really more excluding than the prices of things at Neiman Marcus? Can’t any middle class slob get an Amex? It’s not like they require an income statement or anything. I would think the high costs of products at the NM store would do more to keep the riff raff out than the amex requirement. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/6 "2011-11-01T13:30:14Z")
**lieu** is certainly on to something as well. But to answer your last question, I believe that AmEx was considerably more exclusive before they got into the credit card market. Previously they were charge cards only, and you were expected to pay your balance every month. And, of course, if your goal is the appearance of exclusivity then whether the limitation causes actual exclusivity is sort of beside the point. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/7 "2011-11-01T13:35:46Z")
Also, the annual fee for the old AmEx charge card was higher than for most credit cards, which would tend to discourage people who didn’t feel they needed the AmEx, e.g., people who traveled overseas a lot – another group Needless-Markup was likely to pursue. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/8 "2011-11-01T14:01:50Z")
Just a WAG, but maybe their bean counters determined that any additional sales generated by accepting more cards would have been more than offset by the additional fees. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/9 "2011-11-01T14:11:27Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Just a WAG, but maybe their bean counters determined that any additional sales generated by accepting more cards would have been more than offset by the additional fees. This is one of the major reasons. Plus how many of their customers are cash customers. In the 80’s I worked for The Emporium Department Store at the Stanford shopping center. Most of the customers were cash customers, they almost could not give their credit card away even with a 10 or 20% discount on the first purchase. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/10 "2011-11-01T14:28:19Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > But consider this. Is Amex really more excluding than the prices of things at Neiman Marcus? > > Can’t any middle class slob get an Amex? It’s not like they require an income statement or anything. > > I would think the high costs of products at the NM store would do more to keep the riff raff out than the amex requirement. This makes perfect sense. The irony is that I have a Macy\*s American Express card. And it is very true that Neiman Marcus prices (and designer names, possibly even quality but I’m not so sure) do as much as anything to set them apart. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/11 "2011-11-01T14:30:39Z")
Also, if I’m not mistaken, AmEx charges the merchant less per transaction than Visa and MC do. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/12 "2011-11-01T14:32:34Z")
Merchants also pay a fee to the charge card company for every transaction. It’s possible that Amex charged Nieman Marcus a fraction less than the other companies did, making it a bit less costly to do charge business via Amex, and saving N-M some money. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/13 "2011-11-01T14:38:25Z")
[According to Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Express), American Express used to offer discounts on merchant fees if the establishment would agree to only accept American Express. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/14 "2011-11-01T15:07:04Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > But consider this. Is Amex really more excluding than the prices of things at Neiman Marcus? > > Can’t any middle class slob get an Amex? It’s not like they require an income statement or anything. > > I would think the high costs of products at the NM store would do more to keep the riff raff out than the amex requirement. I know that at least some Amex products do require that you declare at least a certain minimum annual income. IIRC, in maybe 2003 the floor for Amex Blue was $28K. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/15 "2011-11-01T15:27:31Z")
All of the above. NM had a store charge card, which is where most of their non-cash purchases came from. Accepting any other card was strictly a convenience for the shopper on vacation who had left her NM card at home. Back in the day, “any middle-class slob” couldn’t get an AmEx card. They required proof of income, proof of employment and IIRC, they even wanted to know how long you’d lived at your current address. AmEx wanted to be associated only with upscale businesses, so I’m sure their terms with NM were more favorable than, for example, what Mastercard would offer Macy’s. Also, AmEx was always more liberal on things like fraud and chargebacks, which a merchant like NM might find appealing. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/16 "2011-11-01T16:09:32Z")
Since those days, Visa has tried to enter the more upscale market by offering the Signature card and the Black Card, and AmEx seems to be bottom-fishing with their later offerings. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/17 "2011-11-01T16:22:36Z")
CostCo still only takes American Express as a credit card (they do take others only as Debit cards). WalMart is the same only with Discover. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/18 "2011-11-01T16:31:57Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Also, if I’m not mistaken, AmEx charges the merchant less per transaction than Visa and MC do. They charge substantially **more** , which is why many small businesses refuse to accept it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/19 "2011-11-01T16:32:24Z")
I’m demanding a cite on WalMart not taking VISA or Mastercard as credit cards. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480/20 "2011-11-01T16:44:46Z")
> [@Mr.Slant](#): > > I’m demanding a cite on WalMart not taking VISA or Mastercard as credit cards. Sorry, I meant [Sam’s Club.](http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/03/31/why-doesnt-sams-club-accept-visa-credit-cards/) (And apparently they now take Mastercard too). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-neiman-marcus-only-accept-american-express/601480.md?page=2)