[cwoodward]

[postquote quote=1014349][/postquote]

3% sounds very reasonable as a merchants fee. I am fairly sure that years ago it was much higher than this andI have vague memories of 5% ?

[esselle]

[postquote quote=1014358][/postquote]

A lot of entities participate in a credit card transaction, most notably the aggregator, so that fee does not all end up in one pot.

[Inquisitive]

Esselle is correct, there are B2B transaction fees. Amex likely charges a little bit more, hence Amex card is not accepted in many establishments around the world including Western Europe and USA.

The fees are always negotiable. A large establishment where millions of dollars are charged per year on a particular card, they can negotiate and pay less. A small establishment, unfortunately, have to pay more.

For debit card however the charges are very low like 0.25% to 0.5%, mainly B2B transactions fees. So HuitSix might make enquire at bank or terminal providers why the charge shall be that high.

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jsn55

[MartynSinclair]

[quote quote=1014043]Out of the blue today, received what effectively appears to be £100 gift voucher from Amex Plat to spend at Harrods.

“Simply spend online or in store at Harrods between 2 November to 30 November 2020 and you will receive a statement credit for 100% of every eligible purchase you make with your Platinum Card*, up to the total value of £100.”[/quote]

Thank you Amex. Ordered a 1980 Kopke Colheita port on 2nd November, £100 refund made onto my Amex card on the 3rd November delivered today 5th November. Christmas eve, I will break my ‘alcohol fast’ after just over 6 months.

Still not sure why I was sent the gift, but thank you very much anyway..

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jsn55

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=1014287]LP – do you not find the BA Companion Voucher, for around a 240CHF annual fee (after a spend of 12,000CHF) worth keeping the Amex? Of course, I do appeciate that you are not based in the UK, so you may not be using BA anyway.[/quote]

My card is the Swiss Miles and More so I receive miles on my spend but alas no companion voucher or anything like that – and certainly, unlike Martyn, not a delicious bottle of port! I’m jealous!! 😉

[quote quote=1014349]My wife runs a retail shop and as a business owner she only earns 97% (on top of terminal rental fees) from any amount charged to a card (regardless if credit/debit, Amex, Visa etc.) I’m not sure the credit card company gets the full 3% or if there is another commission/fee or whatnot channeled to somewhere else, but just wanted to point that out.[/quote]

Many people get a slice of that 3%. The terminal provider, the processing bank, the local franchisee, the European franchisee and last but not least, VISA / Mastercard themselves. VISA had revenues of USD 21 billion last year, and they only get a very small part of the 3% (and carry virtually no risk) so you can imagine the whole pie is very very large indeed.

[quote quote=1014358]3% sounds very reasonable as a merchants fee. I am fairly sure that years ago it was much higher than this andI have vague memories of 5% ?[/quote]

It was, I recall a merchant telling me it was as high as 7% for AMEX and Diners. It used to be a good bargaining tool, flash the AMEX, see the look of disappointment, then offer cash for a 10% discount. 9 times out of 10 it worked!

As a final point, card companies make more from interest charged to those that pay in instalments than they do from the 3%.

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jsn55

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1015161]cwoodward wrote:

3% sounds very reasonable as a merchants fee. I am fairly sure that years ago it was much higher than this andI have vague memories of 5% ?[/quote]

It’s now 17 years since I sold my primary business, so I am not up to speed with current rates. However, at the time of sale I was paying 1.5% to Visa/Mastercard and 1.75% to Amex. Subsequently, in 2010 I became Finance Director to a charity and we were paying 1.5% to all. A year before I finished (in 2017) we had negotiated Amex down to 1.25%.

In these all instances I found that these charges were similar to what the Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest were charging us for paying in cheques or cash. The small difference was easily absorbed by the convenience of not having to go to a bank.

[LuganoPirate]

I said I’d cancel my AMEX this year, but just noticed it has been renewed. I thought it was due in December – obviously not!!!

[Chris in Makati]

[postquote quote=1015170][/postquote]

My Amex Platinum is due for renewal next month. I’m thinking of telling them I’m cancelling and wondering if they’d offer me any kind of deal to stay. I wasn’t offered the Marriott or Harrods offers, although I did get the Waitrose one.

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Polly

[jsn55]

For me, this “renewal” was the final straw. We had several AmEx accounts 5 or 6 years ago. I called to cancel one of the cards the month it was to renew, only to be told that it had renewed several months earlier. The annual fee was charged at that time but due to high volume usage, I hadn’t noticed it. AmEx refused to credit the fee back and cancel the card. I pursued it up a couple of levels, got an offer of a $100 statement credit for spending $50 or something dumb like that. So I did, then cancelled he card. AmEx lost me as a customer forever over less than $75. I don’t need that kind of short-sightedness with my major credit card issuer. Chase Sapphire has been perfect.

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1015272]I called to cancel one of the cards the month it was to renew, only to be told that it had renewed several months earlier. The annual fee was charged at that time but due to high volume usage, I hadn’t noticed it.[/quote]

Whatever the usage you should be checking your account regularly. Why should Amex have credited your fee back after several months of usage? Sorry, I am with Amex on this one.

[jsn55]

Why should I ask for a credit on the annual fee? I’ve been an AmEx customer since 1972. This particular card hadn’t been used since the bogus renewal date. If a card expires in a certain month, it’s unethical to renew it 4 months early. Agreeing with my request is called good customer service.

[Chris in Makati]

[postquote quote=1015447][/postquote]

That’s something to be aware of with Amex. Membership renewal dates don’t correspond with card expiry dates.

When my card gets replaced it’s new expiry date is normally two or three years ahead, and usually expires in February. The card subscription is billed annually at the end of December each year.

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jsn55

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1015449]When my card gets replaced it’s new expiry date is normally two or three years ahead, and usually expires in February. The card subscription is billed annually at the end of December each year.[/quote]

These dates correspond exactly with my own. The annual subscription fee then appears on my Amex bill towards the end of January. I have never experienced my renewal being four (or any other) months early – and, anyway, I would spot this immediately so would be able to contact Amex to get it removed within days.

I am sorry but I still don’t empathise with jsn55 in the failed request for a refund after “several months”, especially since they were cancelling anyway, so “good customer service” is therefore irrelevant.

[sparkyflier]

Thank you for all the replies so far and interesting to read the variety of different experiences.

I thought I would update you on my issue /complaint re American Express customer service.

As a reminder I have been a member for many many years and have pretty much always found their service excellent. I do however prefer their Brighton staff who are warm, professional, human and indeed many of them you think you would like to meet sometime.

But my complaint is with their back office and “systems”, with customer services saying one thing but the system doing another. Repeatedly I have told them about the problems and have been promised calls back – which never happened. An official complaint was raised, and I eventually got their “investigation” (!) back the other week.

Sadly, it was lazy, the person doing it had NOT looked at facts, names given, conveniently not being able to hear taped conversations, and offered a frankly pathetic “gesture of good will” – given their many errors and time wasted.Amazingly, I called to make a payment on my charge card the other day and once that was done asked to speak with the complaints department… and was put through to the person who had sent the letter! I guess that was one good thing.

However when I cited evidence of one part of my complaint and the person was then able to check and saw that I was indeed correct ( a letter was autogenerated by mistake). In this case she recognised THEIR error (which was the source of the subsequent issues), but gave a half apology and said the miserly gesture would not be changed. I objected quite strongly, reminding that it was AMEX’s errors, flawed systems, poor following up, broken promises, who had wasted much of my time, and she said she would come back to me between specific times next Tuesday (!)…. which was yesterday.

So I made myself available yesterday at those times, not going on the tube, not making outbound calls etc, and you can guess what did not happen…

NO promised call, not even an email. Yet again they have failed and wasted my time. Frankly their “service” in this case in my eyes really erodes the respect I had for this brand which shows contempt for a loyal customer and their effort looking into this has been lazy, arrogant, incompetent, ignorant and inconsiderate, and I am highly minded to report them to the FCA – Financial Conduct Authority.

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ASK1945

[Corporate-gal]

Unfortunately I have had the same experience as sparkyflier trying to get a credit back in cancelled reward flights taxes with
Etihad booked through American Airlines.
To say I was misled and told that everything would be fine has been an understatement. They have refunded me and taken the money back three times each time claiming the airline has refunded when they hadn’t.
I’ve been a customer since 1997 and have had numerous miles cards with them in the past, settling with the BA Premium and Platinum Business. However after this abysmal episode I have curtailed my spend significantly and have moved to Virgin and Miles and More.
I have even had to raise a case with the Ombudsman which is still being investigated.

[Author]

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