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Lol, I give a lot of hoots, I would be mortified if someone thought I was the type not to pay my bills! I live in a small town (in every sense) and it’s not uncommon for shop assistants, especially young ones, to not even know what Amex is and if your card is declined they will automatically assume it’s been blocked by the issuer rather than their machine.
I’ll add a couple more things to my earlier record store post.
I often find retailers on shop small that refuse to take Amex and say they dropped it a long time ago. Paying by MC and contacting live chat usually gets me a credit but it takes years for them to get taken off Amex’s map. Specific case, neighbor across from me ran a kitchen business from home. After they moved out it still showed on the Amex map. I made 3 complaints, 1 formal in writing and it took 6 years before it was removed.
My dad used to retail clothing decades ago. Even though he had an Amex green card in his wallet he wouldnt accept it in his shop. MC/Visa charge was around 2-3%, Amex wanted 7%. (this was a long time ago before all the rules changed). There’s still a variance in charges but it’s not as big.
As far as card being declined, more often than not it’s the machine these days. There’s no stigma any more.
I’m sick of Sainsbury’s machines not being able to read the chip on my Amex, everywhere else can. When abroad it’s a lottery which card will work and which won’t. Most recently in Lanzarote at one particular supermarket Barclays Visa was declined every time. Each time I said hang on, I’ll get a different card out and each time the person behind the checkout reached for a different card processing machine and said just use this one instead.USA – Don’t get me started as to which cards work where, which will be declined on which food ordering website etc. Which retailers need a pin, which don’t etc.I could write a book.
*Though in relation to your experience, Rich, yes if someone was actually abusive because I tried to use Amex it would be a different matter 😂
@davefl – my Curve has been accepted everywhere in Florida so far except Dunkin’ Donuts 🤣🤣🤣I’m still not over the rejection by Phat Buns Burger Bar, Birmingham.
*Though in relation to your experience, Rich, yes if someone was actually abusive because I tried to use Amex it would be a different matter 😂
@davefl – my Curve has been accepted everywhere in Florida so far except Dunkin’ Donuts 🤣🤣🤣Don’t mention curve to me. Utter *********.
Tried to upgrade to metal twice, 1st time the 1st transaction got my IHG plat blocked for fraud. Second time a year later thought I’d give them a second chance. Not a single transaction went through after the upgrade. Zero response from them apart from when I asked to cancel and refund the fee and all I got as a reply was “OK”.
And you only have youself to blame for Dunkin 🙂
Why would any of you care at all if someone in a restaurant incorrectly thought you’d exceeded your credit limit?
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 🤦🏻♀️😂
What a weird thing to care about.
Why would any of you care at all if someone in a restaurant incorrectly thought you’d exceeded your credit limit?
Indeed. If someone looked at me, I’d just say that the crack was very good this month (I’d probably say something else, but this is a family friendly place).
But the owner of this website always argued against having the Aqua 0.5% cash back card because people could look funny at you for having a card aimed at people with low credit scores…Yeah I wouldn’t care what people might think if my card got declined. Happens all the time for all sorts of reasons. None of them connected to a lack of funds.
And there’s also no shame in having limited funds.
Anna on the main HfP site is Northern Lass on the forum. The Anna on this thread is likely someone different. Unless she’s changed her name on the forum that is.
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
There’s some fun ideas about small business and card payments here; I think this one was the best.
Waiting 60 days or even 30?? Maybe in 1973. We receive a processor payment around 1PM every day. Can’t remember the exact cutoff time but it includes payments we took that morning. Amex does take a whole 12 hours extra, but we survive :D.Amex is marginally more for us to process but not enough that you’d care – and it’s vastly cheaper than chasing or writing off bad debt.
Any half competent business will take it with a smile from a potential returning customer. The reaction YR had last night was idiotic and terrible and he’s quite to be anooyed and right not to return – and why on earth would a non-owner staff member care what card is used as it doesn’t affect them but they’ve almost certainly trashed their tip – so stupid on many levels?
As a small business you can accept Amex but don’t need to have any stickers out to advertise the fact – but if someone sticks their BAPP card in and gets some Avios on my pennies-extra higher processor fee then good luck to them. Don’t know what Amex usage stats are overall (they’ll obviously be much higher than average in tourist-focused businesses); as we don’t advertise acceptance, Amex makes up about 2% of our total card payments, so any effect is utterly negligible.
(I was quite impressed that Amex sent every small business a largee boittle of handrub with their logo on when we reopened after Covid – full marks for innovative marketing at short notice; even if I did Tippex over the logo then use it 😀 😀 ).
I didn’t mention lack of funds 🙄. I was referring to not having settled a bill, which I was brought up to believe is supremely inconsiderate and shows poor organisational skills.
Amex is marginally more for us to process but not enough that you’d care – and it’s vastly cheaper than chasing or writing off bad debt.
Any half competent business will take it with a smile from a potential returning customer.
If only every small business thought as sensibly as you @The Savage Squirrel.
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
There’s some fun ideas about small business and card payments here; I think this one was the best.
Waiting 60 days or even 30?? Maybe in 1973. We receive a processor payment around 1PM every day. Can’t remember the exact cutoff time but it includes payments we took that morning. Amex does take a whole 12 hours extra, but we survive :D.Amex is marginally more for us to process but not enough that you’d care – and it’s vastly cheaper than chasing or writing off bad debt.
Any half competent business will take it with a smile from a potential returning customer. The reaction YR had last night was idiotic and terrible and he’s quite to be anooyed and right not to return – and why on earth would a non-owner staff member care what card is used as it doesn’t affect them but they’ve almost certainly trashed their tip – so stupid on many levels?
As a small business you can accept Amex but don’t need to have any stickers out to advertise the fact – but if someone sticks their BAPP card in and gets some Avios on my pennies-extra higher processor fee then good luck to them. Don’t know what Amex usage stats are overall (they’ll obviously be much higher than average in tourist-focused businesses); as we don’t advertise acceptance, Amex makes up about 2% of our total card payments, so any effect is utterly negligible.
(I was quite impressed that Amex sent every small business a largee boittle of handrub with their logo on when we reopened after Covid – full marks for innovative marketing at short notice; even if I did Tippex over the logo then use it 😀 😀 ).
Thats my point. The small business I refer to has been trading since the 70s and is in a central london location
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.
If your quick enough with apple pay or contactless you can usually bypass that whole conversation
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 🤦🏻♀️😂
What a weird thing to care about.
Loudly asking after a decline? That sounds like poor customer service training
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 approach it the opposite way. I loudly ask them why they don’t accept Amex and therefore lose out on affluent customers spending.
Amex does have a reputation of having high spenders as customers, so it’s baffling many merchants are happy to annoy their customers than welcome them.I can understand retail or grocery stores refusing to Amex as they operate on wafer thin margins, but restaurants? Margin on a glass of coke would more than cover the additional cost of accepting Amex.
I wish Curve played nicely with Amex just for this – to avoid displaying the Amex card when paying.
Did you see my reply about finding the post about the Stockholm lounge in the chat thread the other day?
Yeah I wouldn’t care what people might think if my card got declined. Happens all the time for all sorts of reasons. None of them connected to a lack of funds.
And there’s also no shame in having limited funds.
Not only that, but if you care about what other people say you shouldn’t be paying with a credit card at all: most people think credit cards are for people in debt that can’t take care of their finances properly.
Anna on the main HfP site is Northern Lass on the forum. The Anna on this thread is likely someone different. Unless she’s changed her name on the forum that is.
Na, it’s her.
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.
If your quick enough with apple pay or contactless you can usually bypass that whole conversation
Contactless limit is £100.
If you are spending under £100 at a restaurant then you need to be careful, as this doesn’t fit with the perceived demographic of this site!**Aston goes back to studying the menu at Phat Buns Burger Bar**
Indeed.
Remember the conversation on how hard it is to find a place in London to have lunch for under £200.Was about to pay for a Rolex when I was told that they did not accept AmEx anymore (as of that month). Had to do a lot of money shifting between accounts to make the transaction happen, as I was not carrying any other heavy duty credit cards.
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