Amex contactless

moocowone

Hi all

I've had problems using the contactless feature on my amex card. Even places that accept amex and contactless payments, somehow don't seem to accept amex contactless!?

Has anyone got it to work? If so, where?

[Deleted User]

I believe it's because most of the contactless machines that are around so far are provided by Mastercard and/or VISA - who clearly have a vested interest in making Amex a less attractive form of payment. As I understand it these machines are OWNED by MC/Visa who are effectively giving them to retailers for free in order to promote contactless.

I could be wrong but I think you need to use an Amex contactless machine with an Amex card - I've not seen one of these yet. Contactless is still quite an immature form of payment so when it becomes more widespread I'm sure this will improve as you will get third party machines that aren't owned by MC/Visa - a bit like how back in the old days you would sometimes be charged to withdraw cash from an ATM that didn't belong to your bank.

My understanding is based on trying to use my American Airlines Duo cards (1 x Amex and 1 x Visa card that are linked to the same account). I tried to pay for something using contactless with the Amex - didn't work. Did it again with the Visa and it went through fine.

As things stand right now I don't even bother with contactless as it always seems like a bit of a gamble as to whether it's going to work or not, irrespective of the card you're using. By the time you've tried and failed and the assistant has had a go and then wiped your card and tried again for luck, you've already !!!!ed off everyone behind you in the queue, look like a tit and had more than enough time to use a PIN anyway!

thesaver79

I regularly pay with my contactless Amex cards at M&S. I've used it in a couple of other places (including on London buses), but - as Lazyloki says - most of them will only work with Visa or Mastercard (Boots for example).

moocowone

It sounds like amex contactless is a bit unpredictable, which is a shame. My firstdirect visa works anywhere and everywhere that accepts contactless (but no cashback with FD!)

zerog

Just to state the obvious, are you guys saying that Amex contactless doesn't work even when the merchant normally accepts Amex?

thesaver79

zerog wrote: »

Just to state the obvious, are you guys saying that Amex contactless doesn't work even when the merchant normally accepts Amex?

We're saying that some will accept Amex contact-less, for example M&S and London Buses, others won't even if they accept contact-less Visa/MasterCard and Amex with chip&pin.

moocowone

zerog wrote: »

Just to state the obvious, are you guys saying that Amex contactless doesn't work even when the merchant normally accepts Amex?

That's right. A shop may accept amex and they may accept contactless payments but that appears to be no guarantee that you will be able to pay with the contactless feature on your amex card.

That's my experience, anyway, and it seems to be similar to other experiences in this thread.

InsideInsurance

There are a few placed that do, my local and M&S both work fine but Eat/ Pret don't but if you look at their contactless pads they've only got the visa and mastercard logos on them

Chino

Lazyloki wrote: »

I believe it's because most of the contactless machines that are around so far are provided by Mastercard and/or VISA - who clearly have a vested interest in making Amex a less attractive form of payment. As I understand it these machines are OWNED by MC/Visa

Your understanding is wrong - MC/Visa neither own nor provide the machines.

[Deleted User]

Chino wrote: »

Your understanding is wrong - MC/Visa neither own nor provide the machines.

I stand corrected I guess but several of the ones I've seen have been branded with the visa or M/C logo.

[Deleted User]

They're branded Visa or MC to show that they accept those systems.

Where you see the "four curved lines" symbol, that's generically saying "contactless payment here".

Then you'll see one or more of "Visa Paywave", "MasterCard PayPass", or "Amex ExpressPay", to indicate which cards will work on that particular reader.

Usually, Visa and MC work together because they go through one merchant number to the MSP, but Amex payments use a different Amex-specific merchant number, which may not have been activated for NFC.