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I don't evangelize Amex, but I do love using it for myself. I don't care if anyone else uses it.
For me, it's the rapid accumulation of points. It more or less works out to be >1% cash back in terms of value of points. Plus, global lounge access at numerous airports when Im not flying business class. And insurance for basically everything you pay for.
There is usually no penalty to pay with Amex. Most places either accept it or not. If they do, the perks are a free bonus.
Oh dang - I haven't noticed it on any of my cards but that sucks.
Yes if you travel a lot the amex platinum card pays for itself - I think its about $400 a year directly reimbursed through flying and hotels + $189 reimbursed for clear + free lounges + free hertz and Hilton upgrades to their premium status + 5% cash back on everything travel + free Walmart plus which gets you 10 cents off per gallon at Walmart gas stations and those are just the traveling benefits - it also has reimbursement for uber/news paper delivery like WSJ. But if you don't travel a lot then yea its probably a waste of a $700 fee.
Absolutely, they are being squeezed out of existence and they keep their tail up demanding special deals and the like.
Same for Romania.
Personally, I never had a Maestro card (even as they were in heavy use here), just plain Mastercard and ONCE VISA which was forced on me by my employer at the time (from Societe Generale, no less).
I don't want any miles as I dislike planes due to the pollution, I am happy with my 1% bonus and up to 10 in selected shops, I always pay full (except once when I forgot for a day and paid something like 15 cents interest). I am maxing my card a few times a month and paying up because the bank really hates me as I pay no interest and refuses to up the limit I have since 2009.
All good, never felt the need for another card, MC is good enough, thank you.
I guess this is something that makes Amex a little different.
For most kinds of Amex, there is a fee just to have the card. But also the fees merchants pay is higher than Visa/Master. So Amex value you for how much you spend, rather than how much interest you pay. Well.. they value that too, I guess, but they already benefit a lot through increased transaction fees.
The fees you pay are often offset by the perks any way, but then you get additional perks the more you spend.
I pay a fee too.
My card too. They pay me bonus so they are interested in me spending more, otherwise they would pile up fees for various things, including ATM transactions and the like. Those are 0 within the EU even at other bank's ATMs.
Also, the interest is none of the card company's business. I pay the interest to my bank (or rather not) for the card account. The card company is only managing the transactions, some of the branding and the like, most things are managed by the bank, including the credit score.
I guess this is the big difference between Amex and bank affiliated Visa/Master. I pay interest to Amex if I forget to pay in full on time. They actually sometimes refund me the interest if I ask nicely, as long as I have a reasonable reason and don't do it often.
If I pay my balance on time, Amex just increases my limit every year. My credit cards are issued in HK and I feel like maybe limits are just higher in HK compared to the EU, UK or maybe even the US. But I could litterally buy a house in Europe with my credit limit. Of course that would be insane given the interest. But at the same time, my Visa, issued by HSBC, allowed me to withdraw my entire credit limit from my card in a single lump sum at only 4.5% APR. Literally lower than Fed rate.
So paying off my balance all the time has only increased my limits and lowered my rate of interest.
Financially stable people pay off credit cards every month.
AMEX: 3% reward on online shopping.
PayPal Mastercard: 3% reward on PayPal.
Wells Fargo Active Cash Visa: 2% reward on everything.
As long as eBay continues to accept PayPal, I would still receive a 3% discount on my eBay purchases.
However, eBay doesn't accept PayPal for selling fees, so that we would experience a 1% loss on that end.
Hum... I only have 1%. Perhaps AMEX is better, but I see that model failing as the shop margins are shrinking and a few % might have not been much 10 years ago, but they do matter right now.
He's in the US. US cards frequently offer richer benefits than their counterparts abroad. As I understand it, interchange fees in the US and Canada are on average higher than those in most EU nations, so this helps pay for that.
For $40 online shopping (card not present) transaction:
Visa Signature interchange fee $1.26
World Mastercard interchange fee $0.98
PayPal transaction fee $1.886
AMEX interchange fee $0.78
Discover interchange fee $0.888
Note: these rates pertain to a small-medium business who contracts with each network.
Large enterprises such as eBay and Target can most likely negotiate lower interchange rates.
Therefore, credit card issuers lose money on us.
I have a card since 2009 (yes, there was no point before because any Romanian was considered a thief and all transactions rejected until (maybe) something happened at EU level after Romania joined in 2007) and here everyone had a maestro card for a one time a month ATM transaction to take their monthly wage out. Besides the rapid changes in card and online transactions in Romania since then, I have used my cards to buy goods and services worth hundreds of thousands at least and only paid 15 cents once (besides the regular fees (4 eur a year for the card, 1 eur a month for the extra account and 4 more Eur every 5 years at the renewal of the card).
I even pay my utility bills online with my main credit card to take that bonus, so, obviously, the bank would pay good money to get rid of me :P
These rates are just interchange+. You can get them from Striple and Adyen when you process a certain threshold per month, I think it's 50k but dont quote me on that. The reality is though that most of time what you actually get is Interchange + + + + +. We sometimes we see up to 6 line items, more so in Europe because interchange is regulated, so Visa and Mastercard quickly shifted all their revenue in various complicated scheme fees.
If you're processing under 50k per month you'll be on bundled rates (with possible exception of Amex) so you won't see or care the underlying breakdown, but behind the scenes its all interchange+ or rather interchange+++++. And the sad thing is, you can't technically say I'm not taking Corporate World Elite Mastercards without breaking the terms of conditions, if you want to accept Mastercard debit local next to nothing interchange then you got to accept Corporate Gold World Elite (name might not be accurate) too which can rocket the end % paid.
It will all be factored in, the banks rarely lose, the worse case here is your electric authority average transaction cost inches higher.
Watch out for currency conversion fees though with Amex.
I use my Amex for all transactions no matter currency in my company, but, privately, I use my Amex only for transactions in SEK. I didn’t find the bonus very worth the much higher exchange rates (1,75 % I think, or close to it).
I therefore have two credit cards that I actively use, the Amex and a non-bonus card (Klarna) that offers 0 % markup on top of the Visa rate.
Happy with my revolut/wise combo, both visa though. Might need to pick up a Mastercard from the bank.
This guy fintechs
My bank required 1k income a month for a cc, wise/revolut give free debit cards. Didn't have much of a choice.
I quoted interchange rates.
The processor's cut is paid by the merchant.
Large merchants such as eBay and Target could become their own processor and avoid this cost.
A merchant can choose to accept Mastercard Debit but refuse Mastercard Credit.
It cannot distinguish between different levels of Mastercard Credit, i.e. regular / World / World Elite.
Verizon FiOS home Internet gives a $10 discount for paying with a debit card instead of a credit card.
Highly reputable merchant issues their own debit and credit cards.
Such cards do not run on a card network and thus does not incur interchange fees.
We have a Target debit card.
Target Corporation has been our partner since 2012.