How important do you think it is to accept American Express credit cards? I have just signed up with PayJunction and processing of American Express cards is not available by default. I have to contact American Express and set up an account with them, then hook that into PayJunction. Is it worth the trouble? Or are all the bases covered if I offer Visa, Mastercard, Discover and PayPal? Thoughts?
Opinion: Lots of businesses use Amex. So if those customers are important to you, then you should accept it. But, if you're dealing with normal consumers you would probably see little impact since they are more than likely to have multiple card types.
Never owned an AMEX in my life, except for a company card. which has subsequently been replaced by VISA.
Their rates are usually higher than MC/Visa.
OK thanks for the input. Most of the customers buying through the website would be normal consumers. Businesses, like bookstores, buy on credit terms over the phone. I guess I could go back through some of my orders and see how many have paid by Amex, though that could be tedious and time consuming unless I can download my orders into Excel or something and do a search.
I think it also depends on who you are trying to sell to. It seems to me that not only do a lot of businesses use Amex, but a lot of older people do to. My dad and grandma both use Amex. Why? I have not clue, but they do. My grandma also uses Discover. Personally, I've never used either card, or accepted either card.
I think if you are going to sell to businesses or older people, Amex might be good. Of course anytime you are limiting what cards you accept, I guess you are potentially limiting your customer base, so maybe it is a good idea to accept it anyways.
Thanks,
Brandon
Amex will suck you dry.
3.5% per transaction vs 1.5 in Australia at least.
Last year American Express was running a “special” where they matched our current rates with the other credit cards. In the process of 6 months we only had 13 customers pay using it. Our primary business is usually end users, but we do have a site that sells to more businesses. Once we just got past the 6 months American Express decided they wanted to jack up the rates to double what the other credit card companies were charging so we canned them. Now when we get someone who wants to pay with AE and we tell them we no longer accept it they usually just grab another cc.
Can't you accept amex through paypal?
Amex are always higher than usual providers, Sagepay does accept Amex but I dont advertise it as it sucks more profit form the job than Visa etc.
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Can't you accept amex through paypal?
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I don't think so…not with PayPal Express. I think when they click on the PayPal button, the customer is directed to login to their PayPal account.
It would depend on your customers. A lot of corporates get issued amex cards. I carry one just for the higher points
I think most people will have a vc/mc . but will use amex if given the opportunity
OK thanks for the input. I did some spot checking through past orders and didn't find ANY Amex payments. So, for now I'm going to leave it out.
AMEX is expensive to use ie… they charge almost twice the % for sales purchases. Most all of my customers use Visa or Master C. I've only had 2 people out of the last 600 that wanted to use AMEX. I have PlugnPay which I use for AMEX. Its not woth it in my opinion. You need to weigh how many customers want to buy with it, then justify it…God Speed…
[quote name='kingsleypress' timestamp='1335958913' post='135694']
I don't think so…not with PayPal Express. I think when they click on the PayPal button, the customer is directed to login to their PayPal account.
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ah yeah… well you could always add normal paypal checkout and put an amex sign in there. Like ebay does, if you choose credit card, they just redirect you to paypal checkout as if customer does not have a paypal account.
I waited to put AMEX on my site after I started getting a certain amount of traffic. When you just start out it is not justified to get AMEX. But once your traffic increases to a certain level I HIGHLY recommend getting. Low traffic sites you probably would not see a difference.