This is a pet peeve of mine: Merchants that don't accept American Express

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Look at me! I'm rich!!!

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Not at all. The AMEX perks are just so much better than other cards. Would you for accept a free Delta Airline ticket? I get one every CC anniversary, plus things like one free bag for up to 8 people flying with me, and other things.

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Merchants that don't accept American Express

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I try to use AMEX for everything too, but I get it when merchants don't want to accept it. First of all, it's not hurting business because you're buying there anyway. (Don't get me started on the assholes that only serve Pepsi products).

However, don't look at the fee differential in terms of total transaction price. Look at it in terms of margin. If they are in a business that operates at say a 30% margin, your extra 2% is another 6.7% of their margin eaten up. That crap adds up over the year. Also, I suspect a lot of merchants don't want to agree to AMEX terms of service which are more customer friendly than others.

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First of all, it's not hurting business because you're buying there anyway.

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I don't buy in to this for a minute.This is what unscrupulous merchants want you to believe. He can continue his no AMEX policy, and I can shop elsewhere. We do have a choice, and these merchants should pay particular attention to the online option.

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Look at it in terms of margin. If they are in a business that operates at say a 30% margin, your extra 2% is another 6.7% of their margin eaten up.

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Why demonize AMEX? Don't kid yourself - the merchants know what percentage of their business is from AMEX transactions. Why can't they adjust accordingly - just like they do with VISA/MC. It's takes a little high school algebra. Not rocket science.

I was being mostly facetious with my previous post, making fun of people on the OT who bash the OPs for using their "problems" as ways to show off their wealth, status among women, etc.

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He was also quick to inform me that they do accept Discover Card though.

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Just from a quick glance Discover seems to charge a little less, but I really don't feel like going through the comparison of V/MC/Discover. However this is a pretty good primer on merchant fees.

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I love how merchants complain about credit card fees but then willfully ignore the fact that accepting credit cards drives sales volume

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I run a soccer team and routinely collect fees from players using credit cards by using the Square app on my phone. Sure, it costs me about $15 extra per season but gone are the days when I have to hound people for checks or cash.

That said, it does cost me money and event though it's only $15 that's a substantial part of whether I make or lose money that season (it's a soccer team, not real business).

I'm a small business owner and one who cannot accept amex. Not by choice only because my choiced vendor I use for cc processing only allows a 500 dollar PER YEAR amount of Amex purchases. Stupidest thing I've ever heard honestly. For most my clients that's one swipe if the card. So all the time it's not the vendors choice to not take Amex it could be there cc processor.

So Tigerpawl lets do a hypothetical....

So your Optometrist raises his exam fee by $15 AND his contact lens fees by $15 to offset your complaint about taking Amex. So you return next year and he says I now take AMEX but it costs $30 more this year would you bitch about that? How loyal are you to your Optometrist? If you are going to leave over what card to use I would say not very loyal. In a competition market I would say if your Optometrist raised his fees by $20-$30 many patients would leave as "the guy down the road is cheaper mentality".

In a world of decreasing margins in the medical field I can understand his position. There is almost no markup on contact lenses anymore add decreasing reimbursement from insurance and as a business owner I can see his perspective. We take AMEX in my business however it's a PIA they pay you at least 48-72 hours after the transaction and charge you more for it.

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Rough estimate is $1.15 difference between his Amex and VISA fees.

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would you be ok if he charged you 114.15?

1% is pretty significant margin impact in any business.

It's more than just the fee though... They would have to increase the price due to higher liability.

So you want the business to increase its prices when people continually flock to the store with the lowest prices. I just don't see it.