-
I had abit of a strange experience tonight using Amex which triggered me starting this topic to wonder what other weird and wonderful experiences people can share having used an Amex.
Tonight me and the wife went to a restaurant for a curry and when I asked if we can pay on card the staff member brought over the card machine and I just used Apple Pay on my phone. Straight away he tried to cancel it and said “why you using Amex?, We don’t take Amex, why didn’t you say this, why did you try Amex”. My reply “I didn’t know I needed to” As the receipt went through he literally chucked it on the table, and mentioned it to his manager who pretty much said “yeah it’s fine don’t worry” The staff member said again “it’s too late this time, don’t do this again, we don’t take it okay”.
Luckily I don’t take things to heart but I think it would be probably awkward for some. It never crossed my mind before but I’m sure others have interesting stories to tell.
This is not unusual experience, but I just say ‘then you shouldn’t have it programmed on your machine’. They can disable it on the machine if they want.
However, my favourite is trying Amex on websites that supposedly don’t accept them and just put in the first three digits of security code instead of four. It sometimes works.
Lol it happens sometimes. I just say “well it went through, so clearly you do”
I got lip at a record store in manchester when I tried to use my Amex during shop small week a few years ago. Was told we prefer not to take it and do I have another card.
I said well, it’s up to you but I only came in to use that card and it’s actually generated a sale you wouldn’t have had otherwise!
How rude of them!
I always ask because invariably if their machine declines it they start loudly asking if you have another card, implying to all the other customers that your Amex has been declined because you’ve gone over your credit limit or not paid your bill 🤦🏻♀️😂
I always give my Amex first. If they “really” do not accept it, it will not go through, and I swap it for one of my MasterCards. No sweat.
The card processor they use has obviously made a deal with them to accept it as a package as otherwise it won’t give them a good deal on Visa/MC (Amex still cost them more but most new card processor will offer great deals on Visa/MC if you move with them and accept all the cards).
If what has happened to the OP had happened to me I would have calmly told him that it is not up to me to decide what cards they accept or otherwise and if the machine accepted it, that was that. A behaviour like that in a restaurant would mean that I would very clearly tell them it was the last time they had my money.
I always ask because invariably if their machine declines it they start loudly asking if you have another card, implying to all the other customers that your Amex has been declined because you’ve gone over your credit limit or not paid your bill 🤦🏻♀️😂
I do not see that implication at all, especially as I would swap it for the HSBC Premier World Elite
Small businesses tend to dislike amex because of their high fees and slow turnaround of funds compared to VC/MC. Imagine not being paid until 60 days instead of 30
@Luca M – in my local area most shop staff wouldn’t know the difference between a card being declined due to being an Amex or due to financial imprudence of the cardholder. Every time it’s been declined it’s been assumed that the issue is with the cardholder, not the machine.
Small businesses tend to dislike amex because of their high fees and slow turnaround of funds compared to VC/MC. Imagine not being paid until 60 days instead of 30
Amex these days will generally match VI/MC rates, but if you use one of the traditional payment providers, you have to set up a separate Amex merchant account which is a bore and their default is to pay each transaction net of fees (rather than monthly fee billing) which makes reconciliations more complicated, but they will do monthly fee billing on request. Amex usually pays in 5 days vs 2/3.
If there’s a sticker in the window or any kind of AMEX advertising, I stand my ground (to my wife’s embarrassment). I’ve had merchants (often restaurants) try and tell me that the payment terminal doesn’t accept AMEX (but when I insist they try it, it MAGICALLY does!), that the terminal is broken/isn’t charged (but when I say we have no other payment card or cash, it suddenly fixes itself), or the more honest request to use a different card because AMEX charges them more (to which I reply, equally honestly: “sorry… but I get more points with AMEX, so…”).
If there’s a sticker in the window or any kind of AMEX advertising, I stand my ground (to my wife’s embarrassment). I’ve had merchants (often restaurants) try and tell me that the payment terminal doesn’t accept AMEX (but when I insist they try it, it MAGICALLY does!), that the terminal is broken/isn’t charged (but when I say we have no other payment card or cash, it suddenly fixes itself), or the more honest request to use a different card because AMEX charges them more (to which I reply, equally honestly: “sorry… but I get more points with AMEX, so…”).
I bought a new car that way a couple of years ago. Manager insisted their machine didn’t accept Amex, so he agreed that I could try and if it worked it was fine to pay with Amex. It did, so 40,000 Avios.
Small businesses tend to dislike amex because of their high fees and slow turnaround of funds compared to VC/MC. Imagine not being paid until 60 days instead of 30
Where do you get the 30/60 day thing?
It’s been about 10 years since I last did transaction reconciliation, but it was 2 days for Visa/MasterCard and 4 days for Amex. The bigger pest for Amex was the presentation of the transaction data in the CSV file – but a little bit of Python sorted it.
There isn’t a massive difference in personal credit card fees, indeed my boss had a similar issue before Christmas as the OP at a restaurant when the card was accepted then transaction reversed as they “don’t take Amex”. He then paid with his Corporate MasterCard instead of Personal Amex.
I ring Amex if they have signs and don’t take my card. I even get Amex to ring the merchant !!!
Our children’s favourite restaurant was a local family run Mexican so for years we were delightfully welcomed several times a year.
One year I noticed them on Shop Small so went to pay with Amex and they apologetically admitted they are set up for Amex but prefer not to take it because it costs them more.
You can’t blame a small business for signing up to something and then discovering that it doesn’t deliver what the salesperson told them, so I was happy to use another card and forego the shop small credit for the sake of the personal relationship we had built up with them, and for the fact that gratuities far outweigh any points gain.
Supporting good businesses trying to make an honest profit and low paid hospitality staff to the extent that you are fortunate enough to be able to do far exceeds the hobby of points collecting in my book.
But I have always wondered about the facts, given other statements made like JDB’s above that these days there can be no cost difference if you sign up to certain deals or circumstances.
Funnily enough in the last fortnight our Parish has introduced electronic card readers for collecting donations which take all cards including Amex, so I was especially interested to find out the relative deductions for each type of card.
The deal is a special one for churches through SumUp (but similar is likely to be negotiable elsewhere) costing 1.1% for debit cards and 1.3% for credit cards (Visa/MC/Amex). Apparently without the charitable status concessions the charge would have been 1.69% for all credit cards, regardless of whether Amex, MC or Visa.
I don’t know about any difference in settlement duration or complexity, but can find out if people are particularly interested.
Point is it seems accurate to say that with a bit of negotiating effort on the part of a business, they should be able to achieve similar enough charges on Amex to justify (depending perhaps on the socio-economic status of their customers) the increased custom from Amex card holders.
Small businesses tend to dislike amex because of their high fees and slow turnaround of funds compared to VC/MC. Imagine not being paid until 60 days instead of 30
I don’t need to imagine. It seems you have not worked in an industry with monthly invoicing for the work from the previous month, to be paid at the end of the current month.
I usually check if they have the Amex sign on the door before entering the restaurant. If they don’t I don’t even try to pay using Amex.
I had one funny experience where the restaurant had the sign on the door. They brought the bill in a folder and I presented my Amex card to pay when the waiter said “we don’t accept Amex”. I replied “If you don’t why do you have the sticker on the door and why does the folder have an Amex logo on it?”
He then conceded they prefer not to accept Amex as it was more expensive but would do this time around.
I haven’t been back to the restaurant.
This is the main issue. Businesses lose more not taking Amex and creating bad feeling by saying they’d prefer not to accept it, than just stomaching the extra fee. Poor business sense.
It’s the advantage of Google Pay – they don’t see what card you’re trying to pay with. I never ask, just try Amex. If they accept it then fine, if not I use a different card.
Has anyone successfully clawed back amex surcharges from retailers. I once had a resturant charge 50p to use amex. Of course I let it slide once but if it happens again I will be asking for a receipt for this charge as I believe it is now illegal.
A dentist in Westminster wanted to charge a percentage based fee for a payment too. Despite having the logo on the door..
Wondering if Amex will refund any fees like that if they occur when trying to pay using their card?
It’s illegal for the retailer to charge more based upon payment method (as long as it’s a consumer product) and you can tell trading standards
it’s not Amex’s fault they want to charge you more
But I have always wondered about the facts, given other statements made like JDB’s above that these days there can be no cost difference if you sign up to certain deals or circumstances.
I had a chat with my local chipshop owner shortly after it changed hands (they accepted Amex and were on shop small). They were on a staggeringly bad deal, locked in for two years. I run my own business, my card turnover is negligible, and I was radically better off than them, and no differential for Amex versus other credit cards.
I’m sure the chippy owner is an expert in sourcing high-quality fish at good prices, but clearly not very good at haggling a good deal for card processing. Unfortunately it seems many sign up for card processing and only find out what it really costs later.
Oh some good informative replies from this, maybe I’ll start some topics more often instead of posting on the chat thread to thin air.
I’ll just expand on last night post by saying I had expected other people would have received many negative reactions like this, but this is literally the first time I had experienced this. The wife last night was trying to defend it by saying it’s a small business etc which I have absolutely no problem with at all, and I do support local business. Tbh the manager was okay with it, but I didn’t appreciate been spoken to like that but sometimes I really Cba and life is too short so I just smiled. My wife did however harden her tone this morning and said to me “he was really rude to us last night wasn’t he, there was no reason for that, we won’t go back there again. My wife went onto say “if that was your mum paying, she would not known what to do and would have been in tears. Like I mentioned last night, part of me doesn’t really care and it’s only because I post on TA (usually only hotels) and use HFP, that I feel a duty to care a little and report back things like this.
Also, I noticed Annas post and please don’t take offence to this, but I follow your posts closely and was surprised by your reply as you struck me as someone who would not give 2 hoots.
Like most on here, I do just try Amex regardless and smile when maybe due to my paranoia I believe staff members or other customers nearby think that I don’t have the funds or I have gone over my limit. I think I embrace it deep down. My mates always laugh and say “haha can’t get your points and beat the system here). Tbh lately a lot of people appear quite clued up on the basics and as I type this, only 2 mins ago a member of staff in the pub when I went to pay just said “oh is it amex, we don’t take that sorry”.My personal opinions is I really could not care what people think of me if the card gets declined, as I am just like them. However due to me finding this site during covid and investing Alittle time into it, I have made memories of a lifetime due to the knowledge and kindness of other members on this site. I do though take exception of being spoken to like a complete rubbish (that was the polite version), when I am polite and respectful and a paying customer, as I was last night.
One last thing with regards to the cost of taking Amex. The land lady in my local pub practically embraces it and is more than aware she helped contribute to me and my wife going club world trips to Johannesburg last month.
I am sure nothing would happen at the end, but I complained once about a similar retailer.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
