How American Express Humiliates Visa & Mastercard
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- We’re all familiar with the names American Express, Visa, and MasterCard. Those of you looking to maximize your rewards and points often prefer Amex due to its superior rewards programs. But aside from that, there’s little difference between these card networks from the consumer’s side. From the business side though, the difference between Amex and the other two is massive. Visa and MasterCard have issued 20 times as many credit cards as Amex, yet Amex boasts the same revenue as Visa and MasterCard combined. The only explanation for this is that Amex charges higher fees to merchants and Amex customers spend a lot more money than Visa and MasterCard customers. Ever since American Express entered the card business, they have targetted high-end spenders which they like to call spend-centric. Over the years, this has proven extremely lucrative for Amex as they’re able to pull in higher fees from merchants on their highest spenders. This video explains the story of American Express and how they grew to be the king of credit cards.
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0:00 - American Express
2:35 - Humble Roots
4:51 - Financial Services
6:33 - The Great Winter
8:28 - Credit Cards
10:22 - Amex Today
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The high merchant fees probably explain why most vendors here in Europe don’t accept AmEx and only take Visa or MasterCard.
AMEX charges merchants ridiculously high fees. When I ran a business, I didn't accept AMEX because every customer also had a VISA or Mastercard in their wallet. It was no skin off my nose.
Same in AU, many places dont accept AMEX
I've worked retail in Australia and the companies I worked for charged an extra 2% surcharge to use an AmEx. Of course you need to inform the customer of this and the typical reaction from those customers left me with the impression that AmEx users are a bit thick.
Obviously not a fair representation as those AmEx users who were aware would have just pulled out a Visa or Mastercard instead, however the impression remains.
@@somethinglikethat2176 I worked in the back office of a retailer who accepted Amex. But of course I talked to customer facing colleagues. It was stressful, all these needless conflicts. Amex's rep always gave us the line that their customers spent more, implying that if we accepted Amex the customer would spend more. But we sell what we sell. One day, my boss told me to check, and the figures show that Amex customers in fact did not spend more. If anything, it was significantly less. And the monthly total was insignificant. She terminated the account, and instructed our retail staff to simply say "sorry we don't take Amex. Only Visa or Mastercard". Surprisingly, no customer had a problem with that. I suppose it was because they were already used to the fact that many retailers did not take their exclusive card. Some will have one of those cards. Others will simply pay cash.
@@Monoiwa then remove the Amex entitlement from your merchant account 🤷🏾♂️
Many stores especially in Europe won't accept AE because of those high fees.
Yep hahaha
@@benchoflemons398 How would that make it better?
@@benchoflemons398 not really. those merchants must somehow make up for the fees, so they just inflate prices for everyone because of these people who use amex
@@benchoflemons398 The amount of people in crippling debt is also way better than Europe.
Depends on the European country. I’m from the UK and it works nearly everywhere here and I also went to Italy 2 weeks ago and nearly every store there also accept American Express
When he says Amex can get anything done He's not lying during the pandemic I got stuck in England when they closed all flights, I called them and asked if they could do anything and they found a Private plane that would take me to the Netherlands to get me back home on another airline and when i was stuck for 14 days in Canada in Quarantine they had me upgraded to a nice hotel with room service, this is mostly why i have the service plus they are great for when you are traveling and need something in a pinch.
What Amex did you have, was it a platinum?
And did AmEx charged you for all these service like for the hotel room, foods and Private Jet? Or all these charges were free of cost to you. And if they charged you for all these how much did it cost?
@@neel28sarkarthe cost was around 7000cnd for the plane out to get home about 3500 more then I was paying before but the hotel upgrade was free of charge. But you get a ton of perks free of charge with them. But the biggest thing is having someone on the phone that can solve a problem and have the links to make something happen if you know what I mean. I use it all the time.
@@neel28sarkarin these examples the customer pays for them but the benefit is that Amex does all the hassle of finding and booking it for you within the price range that you’re comfortable paying
I ate on top of effile tower in Paris within an hour. Lol I love amex.
The greatest advantage that AmEx has that I don't see on other cards is their "Plan It" feature, which effectively turns credit card purchases into an installment loan with much lower interest. Because of that, the handful of times I have had to carry a balance, I did so on my AmEx rather than any other card. Also, when I had a product return get rejected, AmEx sided with me over Apple - that's how you build a loyal customer base and because of that, I try to avoid stores that don't accept AmEx.
Exactly. I try to prioritize purchases that come with AmEx, especially with the much superior points redemption system and their card perks. Especially with me traveling a lot, it works well. Some countries don't accept it at all, and that's the only reason I carry a visa. Their Plan It feature is superior to basically everything else, and I use it to book tickets. That coupled with the travel bonuses makes AmEx superior to other card issuers, especially their great customer service and dispute system.
I also mainly go for places that accept AmEx. Great company overall.
in canada most banks/ mastercards
have fun traveling abroad if you don't want to shop in stores that don't accept amex
@@rymikai I think most people with an American Express also have some kind of debit card or credit card that isn’t American Express. You can’t have a charge card without a checking account to pay the bills, and guess what? A checking account gives you a debit card. Go figure.
@@FTDFahrzeugtechnikBahnenDessau no their problem is that they DON'T WANT to use anything other than their amex which will be a HUGE ISSUE while traveling anywhere that isn't the US because most shops do not accept amex
I think technically Visa and Mastercard are payment processing company or financial services company. They do the backend of credit cards and dont actually charge the interest themselves. The banks that issue the cards do. Where American Express does both. American Express has a lot of revenue per card member but has lower net income than visa and lower profit margins. Visa has a lot less overhead and liabilities than American Express that's why they have nearly 50% margins after taxes and expenses where as American Express is closer to 10%.
Ah yes, all true points
And that is not mentioned in the video and thats the big error.
@@Kev4Kev agreed. The video title and content make it sound like he is comparing McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's.
The entire premise of the video is false. I like the channel and most of the content is great, but this video doesn't really make sense as it is presented.
Yes, this is what I was coming to say - Amex charging higher swipe fees is correct, but SO much that was talked about in this video re: Visa and MasterCard is very wrong.
In fact, Amex is the only one of the 3 that is it's own bank and therefore gets ANY of the cardholder balance interest - exactly the opposite of what's said in the video!!!
@@panoramic523 Yeah, he would have been better off talking about Amex and Discovercard but that wouldnt it be accurate since Discover also has other banksusing their network but the majority of being Discovercards.
Except when you want to pay in Europe and your AE card gets rejected anywhere except the Airport. Total humiliation 10/10 xD
But not every airport store, I work in Barajas airport (Madrid) and we do not accept Amex, not even when we are loosing a 400/500+ euros sell.
Europe, Asia, Oceania even many SA country's reject AE. The US is the only place AE is accepted.
@@louiscypher4186 Not true buddy. I live the UK and have been absolutely reaping the rewards of my amex card. It's a shame my parents and people of their generation didn't have a proper grasp on how beneficial this service can be.
@@EGGHEADIUS i love how you pick micro america as a representation of Europe.
The Uk is quite literally the exception and even Amex brags about it's "35,000" U.K. retailers.
This is a old legend. A lot of stores now accept amex worldwide. Also, which humiliation are you talking about? It's just a payment method ahahah
Really well made video, you were able to pack a super long story into only 13 minutes and still make it digestible, can’t wait to see this channel grow. Keep up the good work
Thank you Gavin, really appreciate the positive feedback!
If he remains engaged with his viewers and innovates he'll become a better channel than the established ones.
Yea, I have to agree. Its a really well made video that educates in a small amount of time. Glad this was in my recommendations.
Totally agree and loved the history lesson
@@LogicallyAnswered I can't believe you're less popular than Polymatter, Wendover and RLL. For all the reasons stated above.
This is skewed due to American Express being the credit card network and the credit card issuer while Visa and Mastercard are just networks and dont issue their own cards. That was not mentioned in the video so you skewed Amex's earnings unless you include every card issued by every random bank like Bank Of America, Citi, Barclays, TD, etc and there earnings from credit cards you are biased.
Fair point
Most of this guy's videos completely omit things like this... Decent videos, but a lot of the information in them is wrong...
- 100% true!!!
Maybe a comparison of Amex revenues vs Discover's revenues would make more sense?
Yeah... and the fact that european socities are not built on debt. I mean how f-ed up is your system, if you HAVE to accrue debt in order to prove that you regularly pay it off? (US credit score...).
Where I come from, you are told from a very young age, that if you don't have the monry to buy sometjing outright, you have to save up for it... I do have a visa card, but I rarely ever use it.
You forgot some key points. MasterCard and VISA are not the card issuers - banks do. It is like a franchise system. Amex is all in one. They know who their customers are, what they buy, how they pay the statement bills. Neither VISA nor MasterCard do have that information as only the card issuing banks do. Amex can model its business exactly on their customers. Amex is its own bank issuing credit/credit lines.
VISA and Mastercard control the card numbering, and the payment/card network - but not approvals or denials nor they give out credit. The risk is on the side of the issuing banks which cash in most of the revenue. So the $10 per card remaining at VISA and Mastercard for processing sounds right.
Discover does more or less the same like Amex but it has the opposite public perception - more on normal customers and not on high spenders. But at Discover, it is also all inside one company And this is why IMHO Discover has a problem - why a merchant should accept higher fees/provisions for Discover when people using it are not spending more than a VISA or MasterCard holder?
Discover's minimum fee is between Visa and Amex, but they actually have the lowest maximum fee at 2.53%
wait, so AMEX is a bank too?
@@Mark-uq9ty Yes. You can open a savings account... And they're FDIC member.
they used to be but not anymore unlike Amex which operates a little different
sharp
1:10 is completely misleading. For charge cards like Amex, the entire customer spending plus finance charges are considered revenue.
Credit cards like Visa and Mastercatd have no contract with the customer nor the merchant. The customers' and merchants' contracts are with their own banks. Revenue is not the total of the customer's spending, but only the fees Visa/Mastercard charge their banks.
This is why Mastercard's average revenue per customer per month is only $18. Who do you know who has a card who only put $18 per month on their card?
This is why Amex's total revenue is twice that of Mastercard but their operating profit is only half. This is why Mastercard's operating profit is half their own revenue. If merchant discounts are only 2% of retail price, operating profits can't reach 50% of revenue. Late charges goes to the banks, not Visa or Mastercard.
Amex is insanely profitable per customer compared to Visa and Mastercard, but this segment is all wrong because of this simple error.
??? I literally signed a contract with Discover for my credit card? Are you talking about debit cards? Because you can absolutely sign a contract with Visa/Mastercard/Discover and then connect your bank account to your credit card account.
@@Megasteel32 most visa and mastercard cards are cards issued by banks. You get a 'Chase' credit card even though they use cards from Visa or Mastercard. Outside of the US it's almost impossible to get a card directly from visa or mastercard your contract will be with a bank, or a company selling creditcards (often also registered as banks).
@@thecooletompie especially in Europe that is true, even with non banks like Amazon offering credit cards, there is always a bank behind it they partner with, and not directly e.g. Visa. This just recently showed as one German bank just announced to end their credit card business which for Germany affected Amazon Visa cards as well as Visa cards issued by the German automobile club ADAC in the next years.
Both MasterCard and Visa only provide the card system banks can use, but do not directly issue cards to customers.
I have an AMEX Gold and Platinum, and unlike other companies they have a really knowledgeable and friendly support team which I really like about AMEX. For example, when I was just getting my Gold card and had to call them to clear up some details, they said they would expedite my shipping and I got the card the very next day in the morning. Beyond that, all the perks and credits they give me more than make up for the hefty annual fees.
Revenue per card is irrelevant. Profit per card is more meaningful
Fair enough, it does say something about Amex’s customers though
@@LogicallyAnswered still enjoyed the video!
Revenue per card is revenue for a company isn’t irrelevant to shareholders and banks.
From a consumer side, I am pretty loyal to Amex simply because every time I have had an issue with a purchase they reversed the charge no questions asked. They also release card holds no questions asked. I cannot say the same for Visa and MC. While I know part of that is the bank that issues the card, thats also part of the reason Amex is so nice because you are dealing with the card issuer and bank.
Visa and Amex are not directly comparable, visa does not issue credit cards. To get a more apples to apples comparison you would need to include how much the issue banks make on visa cards.
Fair enough
I used to have the Gold American Express card 20 years ago when I was younger since then I've fell into financial ruins but I'm looking back to acquire it once again.
Hope you get it again Nick
@@LogicallyAnswered Thank you! I hope you have continually success with this channel as well.
You can rebuild. Stay at it. I did. My credit score use to be 538 it is now 800
@@wbaiey0 if you don't mind asking, how long did it take to get to 800
It took me 3 years. When my score hit 700 that's when i started applying for credit. I paid off my car loan. Got my first BoA credit card with 3k limit. I started Maxine it out and paying it off every month. My score jumped to 740 and the rest is history. I would charge on it and make 2 payments every week. Once the global network realized i make my payments it was over. Every card repeated same technique. I did not waste time getting all those 2 level cards. I only wanted the big boy cards. I have them now. You can do it.
Wait so merchants have to charge the same to all customers, but amex will take more from the merchant and then give it to the card holder as benefits. So richer people will effectively pay less per item.
Yep. It’s not limited to rich people though. You just have to have good credit
Play the credit game and cash out all the rewards.
on the flip side, amex customers also tend to spend way more than visa/mastercard holders, so the merchant is getting bigger sales and transactions, I wanna say on average amex holders spend 30% more per transaction than non amex holders
Who would have thought that financially smart people use it to their advantage.
Yep, it’s hidden fees, the poorest will not be affected, the low middle class will pay most of the benefits of the high middle class and above
Most businesses don’t accept amex because they charge a separate for amex fees. Amex is their own bank while visa, mc have to go thur banks. That’s why it’s called bank card.
Not the case anymore if the merchant does less than 1mil a year in Amex.
It’s not “most businesses”. Nowadays it’s very hard to find a business that doesn’t accept Amex, since it became much more popular after their Green Card and the banks co-branded cards. It also depends a lot on where you live and the kind of business you buy at.
@@joaomarcospv yea right....most business don't accept amex. I know since I'm working in the industry.
@@VanyaBoston what does 1m a year have to do with bank?
@@chosenone5536 Amex has the Opt Blue program for merchants doing under 1mil/year. Extremely transparent pricing and, in a lot of cases, cheaper than visa and mastercard. If you're a small-mid business owners not accepting amex, you're missing out.
I don't know what industry you're working in, but I'm in the merchant services and this is basic knowledge.
I have AMEX platinum, and imo the high annual fees is well worth the point rewards and the perks are just a cherry on the top - pretty big cherry
Also a platinum holder here, and I agree with you 👍
Glad to hear you’re milking those rewards hahaha!
My Sapphire Reserve is great and not a charge card (still don’t carry a balance). I never have to worry it not being accepted
@@sillyseattlecat It' s a great value for money card if you don't travel much. Esp, considering the 600+ the platinum charges.
Despite merchants not wanting to accept Amex, they’re forced to accept the cards because Amex card holders are guaranteed high spenders and good payers. It’s like a passport that says to shops that you’re a good customer that can afford.
I just went back to Amex when they added the 6% on groceries. Coupled with the other rewards it pays me about $1000 annually, so it’s worth the $95 annual fee. I have a CapitalONE Savor card for dining, and Chase Flex for cell phone insurance, and 2% Fidelity card once i max out other cards. If one card would just dominate all these rewards, then I wouldn’t have to carry so much plastic and keep up with it. For now, I justify my monthly reviews for security and financial peace of mind and it puts another ~$1000 a year in my pocket for the effort.
Keep up the good videos. I just subscribed
Take the annual fee and divide that by your percentage cash back and that will give you the amount you need to spend to break even from the amount of the cost of the annual fee. 95/6%
Scan the cards into your phone, I haven't carried a card since 2014.
Card fees were getting so ridiculous somebody installed a ATM with no surcharge for customers in a mostly cash business.
When I used to travel alot for business and the only time I used the Amex at the airport. Most hotels didn't want to use that card. Also Amex didn't charge my account for months until the exchange rates for the countries I went to was in their favor. Not good for our business and I chopped it up as soon as I could. I will NEVER have or use that pos....
I wonder if the business cards are different than personal cards. This video sounded like it was focused on personal cards.
@@notorioustori Personal cards are worse for overseas use. Amex is considered unreliable by many merchants internationally, especially small businesses. they take longer to confirm transactions, they charge more and in some countries where merchant fee's to customers are heavily regulated they often slug customers anyway and make them dispute the charges every few months claiming it was a "mistake".
This is why Amex has so few cards issued overseas. Very few people voluntarily gets Amex internationally almost all of their cards are company cards or loyal american customers who've moved overseas.
@@louiscypher4186 i think most ppl who praise amex and said its better is american it self.
@@yogi_gs In fairness i think that's because of the cultural differences. From your average American POV it probably is a better card.
In most countries you want to avoid debt if at all possible. Where as in America there's a whole thing about building a "credit profile".
Because of this in most countries the whole "rewards" system doesn't work and is viewed as pretty much a scam due to how much you need to spend to get anything back.
In the US because everyone is trying to build their "credit profile" thing everyone's putting everything on their CC anyway, even the weekly shopping bill. So the "rewards" system is much more appealing.
I will look at these credit cards in a different light than most people. My business accepts credit cards and the credit card that charges the most fee that we must pay is American Express. If you don’t do enough business with American Express the fees are excessive. So we don’t personally or businesswise have anything other than MasterCard. When you pay your bill when it arrives in full, it certainly doesn’t cost you anything. Additionally I have the GM card and that certainly is helpful. I put my son on the card when he bought a car at a Chevrolet dealer and after negotiations at closing for the vehicle is when you inform/present them that you have the points with the GM card he ended up saving $3600 on the purchase. Not the first time I’ve done that.
Ah interesting, thanks for sharing your experience!
I'm sure GM got their money back with a transmission failure 😆
I've had an AMEX card before I even graduated from college and the Gold Card 2 years later. Their customer service is very good. If I lose an AMEX card and I've had that happend a few times, one call and they canceled my old card and FED EX'ed a new card to me over night. Any questions about my charges and they removed it. While VISA and MC have nascent customer service, they just don't measure up to AMEX.
I've been invited to take a platinum card but I can't see paying $400/,year is worth it. I don't fly much at all. I'm retired now and can enjoy gling on road trips but I don't stay at premium hotels or use concierge services. I couldn't care less about getting tickets to Hamilton. When I travel, I stay in budget motels and watch a sunset over the desert for my entertainment. So I just stay with my Gold card. Member since 1983.
So it humiliated visa and mastercard by basically robbing people and yet i read in the comments that you cant really pay anywhere with amex. Never had that issue with visa,im pretty sure even drug cartels accept visa.
Lmao 🤣
Robbing people?
They take money from the merchants, not people. Merchants have the right to decline a credit card. Nobody is getting robed
This glossed over part of the story. Credit cards were originally only used for large purchases with cash preferred for every day items. Amex's large charges in Europe were too expensive for retailers of non-luxury items with low margins. Amex refused to budge preferring its high-end model while Visa and Mastercard gained market share, especially with aspiring high rollers.Then came the convenience of spending abroad with travel extending much further to countries where low fees were important. Next, the world moved toward a cashless society for spending on everyday items through the use of debit cards. Consumers had the choice of a prestige Amex card useful for big items in a few places or their Visa/Mastercard that could be used for any value item anywhere. Amex was left behind until it started to aggressively recover its diminishing customer base with new cards and lowering its fees significantly for retailers.
India's Rupay card charges less than Visa and Mastercard.
Therefore in just 4 years after the launch, they destroyed Visa and Mastercard monopoly in debit cards now having 60% Market Share in India. But In Credit cards, it's Still Visa, Mastercard domination in India.
Now Singapore, UAE and the Philippines will start accepting Rupay cards from 2022 Q4.
Fun Fact - Digital Payment Transactions of UPI is more than combined digital payment transactions of China and the USA. All because of the revolutionary UPI Payment System. Even Google told US Federal Bank to make UPI like system.
Yeah because it's government backed and not a private owned business. So nothing to boast about.
Even if it is backed by government it is still a better form of digital payment method. You can pay with credit card also with upi system if your bank supports it.
@@rijulsurendran I was replying to the OP when he said that Rupay destroyed Visa and MasterCard. It's only because they are free right now. Tbh it's not even a business right now. At some point they will charge fees just like Visa and MasterCard and then let's see who destroys whom. In my personal experience Rupay cards are the shittiest and govt is just shoving it down our throats in the name of nationalism.
And yes when the OP said that these cards are now accepted in several other countries but I don't think he knows that it's in collaboration with DCB. So Rupay has not established direct contact with merchants in other countries they are still reliant on an American one.
So the beloved Rupay card which is sold to us under the guise of Aatmanirbhar bharat is still nirbhar on American multinational companies.
In europe you can starve to death with AE. Fees are so high that most vendors dont accept the card.
My Amex blue cash preferred earns me crazy cash back. 6% cash back at supermarkets and 3% at fuel stations. It's only $95/year as well.
Glad to hear you’re milking those rewards!
Well it’s 6x back in AMEX points, which are only worth I believe .6 cents per point, which translates to a return of 3.6 cash back at super markets.
@@MicahErfan
The only card I have that has "points" is my Chase Sapphire Preferred. Amex Blue "CASH" preferred. It's literally in the name. I spent $71.33 at a local grocery store and got back $4.28 in CASH, not points.
@@white_devil73 Don't worry, you paid a part of that in the price; the difference is paid by the rest of the customers, because the slightly more expensive groceries cover the fees Amex gets from the merchant.
My favorite thing about my Amex card is that the transactions post much faster, I might wait 3-5 days for something to show on my discover card, but I can pay my Amex same day in most situations
Do you mean that you can see transactions made with the card pretty fast? If that is what you are saying, on my ING / BT (many others) I see them in real time, not after one day / x hours, but after a few seconds. That is in Europe.
@@FlorinArjocu Exactly! My phone usually shows the transaction before the till finishes printing the receipt.
In the UK, Visa and Mastercard are pretty fast as well. I usually expect to receive the notification on my phone of the transaction about 1/2 a second before the approval notice shows up on the card reader.
im 22 and got my first amex last year with no cosigner. I started the year with 0 credit history and finished the year with an amex business credit line
I'm from India and I hardly see any store even in malls who accept Amex. The high fees is definitely not suitable for mid and small traders. besides i find the facts in this video highly inaccurate. According to wikipedia, in 2020 the net income of visa was over 10 billion whereas that of amex was 3 billion. so how is amex better than visa??
It's clearly a much smaller company, but Amex is generally much better for customer service and security.
@@PointNemo9 in India we have Rupay, they charge nothing and customer service is also great
it's yet another argument on the internet trying to generalize a predominantly american worldview as if it were true internationally
Most of the people confused in the comments section seem to come from outside CONUS lmao
With more and more charges going online and most establishments are part of large companies (hotels, retail stores)
The issue of card acceptance with Amex is not that much.
Also, their secondary services are pretty good like insurance on purchases, car rental insurance, travel booking service and travel insurance
True
In the UK there is insurance on all purchases over £100 with all credit cards.
In the US maybe. Try paying with Amex anywhere in europe. The biggest chains will accept it but everything else not.
Amex is simply not used anywhere in europe with very few exceptions
@@Darkness251 Untrue
I love the fact that 97% of Amex cards i’ve taken as payments have the nfc working, so many dont even have em and if they do it doesn’t work
I have the centurion card. It is worth the annual feeeee!!!! Love the benefits it has!
Hahaha nice work!
@@LogicallyAnswered 🤪🤪
I have 3 credit cards, 1 each on Amex, Visa and Mastercard. I use my Visa and Mastercard ones the most, and Amex is my least used card so much so that there have been months where I did 0 transactions on that card. Reason for this is again Amex themselves, their so exclusive nature means most merchants don't accept them, so its more of a risk having Amex than an advantage, all the merchants accept Visa and Mastercard and I don't have to ever worry about getting stuck somewhere because the merchant won't accept my card.
Interestingly I initially had only an Amex credit card and I had to apply for the Visa card solely because of the trouble I had faced due to Amex not being accepted in many places. Now I have a card with all the 3 networks so I don't have to ever worry about merchant accepting the card.
Those high fees are to pay for all the things you get with Amex. Automatic warranty on all electronic purchases, Auto Rental insurance, free walmart home delivery, free ..., free ..., on and on. As an Amex customer I don't mind if a retailer charges 2% more for me using an Amex, I know I'm getting more than 2% return value for using it. I get 3% back on all purchases anyway so 2% wouldn't even make me flinch. I'm gonna get mad at only getting 1% back, *small cry*? I understand why some don't want to deal, customers can be stupid and don't know what they're getting. I think it's worth it 95% of the time. I've had an Amex since I was 18 and thanks to it the concept of carrying a balance seems dirty. That alone is worth it.
I have three Amex cards and gotten a couple free flights and perk with them. Overall I’m happy with them.
How do I get that reflective gold card at 8:56? I like the looks of that better than my normal metal gold card.
Great video and insights!
Amex user and absolutely love them. They are setting a benchmark across the areas they operate in. Example, the dining benefits that they have plat members are now being matched by the likes of Zomato and another large hotel chain in India.
Glad to hear you have a positive experience with Amex!
Well mastercard and amex are banned from issuing cards in India so really no use for Indian citizens
Love me my American Express Business! Spend multiple 400k plus threw them last year and love the rewards
Love to hear it Abner!
Alot of merchants overseas outright reject amex as a form of payment because of their high fees
>mfw El Salvador accepts Bitcoin but not Amex....
I think Amex also has good penetration into the corporate card market, too. Lots of big companies use Amex travel to handle corporate travel and the Amex corp card goes along with that. 20 years ago I left a company with an Amex corp card and my next employer didn't have a corp card so we used our own. I started carrying a personal Amex Blue until I had to move to Japan and needed a card with no foreign transaction fees. 20 years ago only Capital One reliably had zero transaction fee cards so no more Amex.
Everyone says Amex has low acceptance in Europe, but in my 3 visits to London and Munich in the last year, I’ve had no problem using my card everywhere I’ve spent money. On top of that Amex issues cards for British Air, Hilton, Marriott and more major chains it would seem there would be good reason to accept the card in Europe as much as the USA.
In Australia most smaller retailers and restaurants charge an amex surcharge of 1% to the customer.
this was a very well made video. I have a regular amex card and I don't think I get any crazy perks or anything. the only place ive been to that denies it is cookout (an American fast food chain for those who may not have encountered one)
Ah which card are you using?
yeah they look concentrated in the southeast. None in my state (indiana)
Even the lower end cards usually have some benefit with Amex tbh
Amex acceptance has greatly increased over the years.
There may be the odd exception in London but there is very little value in a card that's not accepted in any shops. Tbf I don't have a credit card at all as I don't like spending money I don't have.
I only use credit cards. Its better to spend their money than yours. I had a problem with my tv and it was still under warranty but they were giving me a hard time. I told them that I would go through the process of a charge back with my AMEX platinum and that they can continue this discussion with AMEX. All of a sudden they started working with me. Its easy to pick on us, but not with other more influential financial institutions.
3 personal and 3 business Amex cards. Great service and plans!
The reason Amex has more revenue, is that they charge the retailer higher service fees. Period.
When you pay by credit card, the retailer pays a percentage. Our small business was able to negotiate 1.2% with Mastercard and 1.25% with Visa. Amex wanted 3.5%.
Whenever customers asked if we take credit, our answer was always "Everything but Amex".
They dont have more revenue. This video is cap.
I had amex but many Hotels in Germany didn‘t accept them due to the high cut they are taking.
Great video, but clickbaity title. They're just different business models, there's no humiliation.
Fair enough
I love American Express...been a member since 95'
How do you take the Credit cards that are prepaid cards?
Except that Visa has a Market Cap of $451B, Mastercard has a Market Cap of $360B and AMEX has a Market Cap of $139B
The problem is that a lot of stores that aren’t huge retailers don’t take American Express
In Europe most CC are free of charge if you have a debet account at the same bank
Loving my amex benefits as a Centurion member 😃
AMX is present here in Australia, but no merchants really accept it due to their high transaction fees. AMX seems like it's got a great business model in the US, but when they're trying to fight established Credit card companies in other countries, it proves to be more difficult. For instance, why would an Australian get an AMX card if no places accept it? And there's no reason for merchants to accept AMX as they're no-one really holding one of their cards.
I used to work as a cashier, and every AMX customer (very few of them, might I add) always seemed to have a visa or MasterCard as backup lmao.
Square does not charge my merchant account extra for accepting am ex. An added bonus is I'm not worried about chargebacks so much
In India, payments systems are superior than west, UPI is revolutionary, and Rupay card is winning in india. Amex is almost irrelevant in india.
I'm not sure it is entirely accurate to contrast the incomes of Visa, Mastercard and Amex? While all three are Schemes / Networks, Amex, for the majority of their transactions, are also the Acquirer of Record and as such levy an additional charge for a service that would normally be performed by an additional entity for Visa and Mastercard?
The great thing about American credit cards is they escape the interchange fee cap in Europe since EU law doesn’t apply to US issued cards by US banks . So I get to use my benefits here, while Europeans can’t
Even here in America, many business won't accept AE because of the merchant fees
Awesome content like always! Honest advice - Have you considered upgrading your microphone and tweaking it a little? I think there's a lot of room for growth there
Many place in Canada don't accept AMEX because of their high fees
Great video! Love the history of the card before you went into how they make money today!
American Express is my favorite and I do use American Express Serve. I have Amex Serve as well as a regular Amex Delta Airlines Card
I think that the 99% number is grossly inflated. A lot of small businesses in New York technically take Amex through their merchant processor but the business itself refuses to accept Amex cards even though their terminals will allow it. Amex is a hard pill to swallow for small businesses (though Amex tries to promote small businesses) which is funny because some of those same small businesses use Amex personally. And the perks are nowhere near what they used to be. When my family wanted an airline card (we fly somewhere every year and I'm a pilot so we wanted a card that would build up miles fast) we did not consider Delta because they use Amex. The Amex rewards were not that much better than what other cards were offering with concierge service by Visa and MasterCard having something similar to offer. Plus Delta's own earnings and rewards were even more restrictive than most other airlines. You could argue that could add to the exclusivity of Delta and Amex (and maybe that's the only thing that some people care about) but there are much better rewards from other airlines and cards for high dollar spenders too.
I really like that business model, actively working FOR the customer.
In India, especially in the Tier 2 and below cities, Amex is yet to penetrate the market suitably. Visa and Master Card are still the most widely accepted credit cards brands. This issue doesn't exist in the Tier 1 cities though.
A companion video to this one might be about exploring India's RuPay platform. Here the govt. is backing this platform as a competitor to Visa and MC, by offering 0 transaction charges for the merchants, as far as I remember. Do check out the story!
Cheers!
Ah yeah, I’ve heard a lot of good things about RuPay
So AMEX does have debit. They have a debit program through Walmart and they have the SERVE program.
Interesting. I got an ad for American Express while watching this video.
Is this your first day on TH-cam?
For the average person a Visa debit card is the best. Is pretty fast, accepted by everyone and has a normal fee.
I have been using AmEx cards for a while now but in a country like India, not all places accept Amex ofc due to the high merchant fees and lack of customer base using amex , ofc we see places with high spending accepting amex but India doesn’t have alot of places like that
There was a reel video where AmEX didnt accept amex card🤣🤣
If you go for their No Fee, Everyday Rewards card.. Then you don't pay an annual fee, have them to back you up if some transaction goes south and get rewards to boot. I use the others as well but, any time I don't feel really confident about the merchant.. it's goin' on Amex for My safety. It's seriously good to have someone with a better legal team behind them than just what protection you get with the others. Opinions definitely differ but, that's one perspective.
Well, i don't have one, i don't even think they have respresentation in my country. But now i get where Revolut is trying to go
i have using PAYBACK American Express Karte in germany since 2 years ( partnership with Rewe). No Yearly fee and while i use the the card i get to collect 1 payback points for every 2 euro. ( 100 paypack points = 1 euro) Pretty satisfed with the Amex . Very good costumer support. Here Amex is not supported in small shops , bakery and many more.
Yeah it's already been mentioned but living in the UK whenever going to make a transaction or payment using a credit card the first thing UK companies state is they do not accept American Express everything else is ok just not American Express
How do you get an AmEx in the UK? Which banks offer them? What are the fees like?
@@MuzzaHukka you get Amex cards from Amex. Pubs and small shops will drag their feet (although there are ways around it), but grocery stores and other large retailers will not complain. Annual fees are £0, 25,175,750 depending on what card you choose.
@@bufordmaddogtannen ah so, unlike Visa and MasterCard which provide the technology and the banks are the ones issuing the actual cards, Amex is both a bank and a technology provider? Okay, if I don't want a credit card but rather a debit card, is that possible too?
@@MuzzaHukka a debit card is a card linked to your bank account. So when you pay with the card, the money is charged immediately onto the account.
Amex cannot give you a bank account where you can can keep money and link a card to it.
They can either provide you with a credit card or a charge card. Amex will keep track of what you are spending and provide the money upfront, but you need to arrange for some way to pay the money back to them (usually a manual transfer or a direct debit from your bank account).
If you have questions, go to your local Amex website and chat/send an email to them.
@@bufordmaddogtannen I'm still legally a resident of the UK even though I've left the country... If I get myself the basic card that doesn't cost anything and just forget that it exists, will I be charged for having it but not using it? Supposing I want to pay someone that only accepts Amex... I pay him £50 and I have this money on my debit card. If I reimburse my AmEx balance with these £50 within 15 minutes, will I have to pay any interest (with the basic account)? How long can I owe Amex the £50 for before they start charging me interest?
Here in Europe, AmEx barely exists, Mastercard is declining rapidly, and Visa is thriving.
3:32 uhhh... that's not New York City. That's Syracuse.
AMEX does issue out debit cards, we do have a few in circulation in SOUTH AFRICA.
I say a few because not many people know about it and most merchants out right don't accommodate. Plus there's only one bank that I know which gives out AMEX cards
Yes, they do issue debit cards, but it’s not a very large portion of their business
AmEx also does several prepaid & reload cards
...was Wells&co established in 19846? thats a long time in the future. it is almost 20th millenium.
if i have to pick one to put in my wallet i would go for either Visa or Mastercard (no AMerican Express)
A lot of place don't accept American Express..
Every place that I go accepts American Express.
Everyone is discussing with Amex,Visa, Mastercard.
The people who hold JCB and UnionPay:😢
I had a american express card around 10 years ago, I had to let it go since most of the places I went did not accept it or the card would get declined for no good reason with hundreds available on it, oh well, master card and visa for the win.
Ive never paid a cc fee and collected over $2000 in sign up bonuses alone. Instead of a $36 customer im -2000
There must a a LOT of unused cards for each visa/MasterCard out there for the average being only 10$ revenue per card given that the very low end minimum transaction fee is 1.5% +0.05c, which means that one card spending 700$ in an entire year already brings more than 10$ in revenue.
Yet again, the actual fees average is higher than that!
And that's only counting cards with no annuals fees, most Visas and mastercards do come with an annual fee!
Similarly, the average Amex card might bring a lot more in revenues, but they actually cost Amex a lot too, concierge services, premium insurances and perks, lounges etc.
Have an Amex card, good luck using that card outside the US, if you're an actual traveller and user of CC for anything other than the 'perks' VISA or Mastercard are the way to go.
Me being portuguese and having multibanco that i can use whatever anywhere
Most people don't know what American Express is. Because... surprise... it's AMERICAN. Visa and Mastercard are international.
I currently have a Platinum card, however, with the recent pandemic I have considered to close it I mainly got it for travel.
Close it, the annual fee is way too high
@@mycelia_ow it’s because you don’t know how to use it 😂
All the cash back, free dinners, gift cards, free hotel nights, free lounge access and perks are worth it.
I’m on my third card. Blue cash, Cash Magnet, Hilton Honors
In the EU region, AMEX is basically only used in Switzerland. Most banks don't even offer AMEX cards at all.
I have a Platinum. Thx dad.
the only person who feels humiliated is me, when my amex is refused at the supermarket.
Nice video I have 8 American Express and they are the best in customer service and benefits
Glad to hear that you have a positive experience with them!
Our Indian govt is promoting Rupay cards because of near 0 MDR for merchants. Visa is very popular among us cause all new aggresive fin-tech start-ups offering cashback/rewards & banks prefer Visa cards for Credit/premium customers as ( MasterCard & Amex were restricted cause they not compiled with data laws in India)
Yes I have a Amex platinum
Ah, you know where it’s at
How much spending is required to be considered a high spender by Amex?
For the Amex Black? There’s no set number, but estimates suggest $200-300k per year across all your Amex cards.
Great vid now I understand the reasons why the like of the company I work for don't accept amex other than than the blanket excuse of: we don't accept it