Who Does/Does Not Accept Amex?

JohalaReewi

Tried Amex in Blockbuster Video at the weekend. They don't take it.

jimmyjim_uk

First Choice Holiday Hypermarket do not exept Amex.

JohalaReewi

Tried to pay for Direct Line motor insurance with Amex. They no longer accept it.

buffers

Tried to pay for Sainsbury's car insurance today with Amex. They don't take it!

JohalaReewi

Good news Paid for drinks and meal in JD Weatherspoons pub with Amex

The_Toff

Lets be honest here; places that don't accept American Express are the sort of places a gent such as myself wouldn't shop in anyway.

When I hand over my black card, I make sure it won't be turned away. And in the places I shop, it won't be.

tempuscat

October, 1975, was the first time I visited the USA. Prior to flying out, I was advised to 'get yourself an American Express card'. So I signed up, paid the annual subscription fee, and set off on a business trip that took in California, Missouri, and Florida. Florida was the first stop and the first time I attempted to use Amex was to buy fuel for my hire car (a Hertz, pre-rented by my employers).

Not a single petrol station was interested in taking Amex. They were, however, quite happy with BarclayCard (which I'd thought they wouldn't even recognise).

Thereafter the entire trip was one incident after another of American merfchanbts refusing to take American Express. But quite happy to take BarclayCard.

It taught me a valuable lesson: that if you need something like a paid-for Amex card (as it was then -- don't know about now) then your self-esteem is seriously lacking. I binned the Amex card when I returned and, 30 years later (!) still don't have one.

Instead, I go into the kind of stores for the kind of purchases 'A Gentleman' (see earlier post in this thread) would make. . . and use my Tesco credit card. It may not mark me out as the world's most urbane, sophisticated international jet-setter, but as Tesco credit 1 Clubcard point for every £2 spent on non-Tesco purchases, it's surprising what my wife and I pick up in the way of £30 - £50 'ClubCard vouchers' every quarter when we shop.

There must be a reason for someone to use Amex. But given that so many here keep having problems, I'm not at all sure what that reason could be. . ?

zcaprd7

tempuscat wrote:

Instead, I go into the kind of stores for the kind of purchases 'A Gentleman' (see earlier post in this thread) would make. . . and use my Tesco credit card. It may not mark me out as the world's most urbane, sophisticated international jet-setter, but as Tesco credit 1 Clubcard point for every £2 spent on non-Tesco purchases, it's surprising what my wife and I pick up in the way of £30 - £50 'ClubCard vouchers' every quarter when we shop.

There must be a reason for someone to use Amex. But given that so many here keep having problems, I'm not at all sure what that reason could be. . ?

Because the cashback is far better than tesco points...

JohalaReewi

zcaprd7 wrote:

Because the cashback is far better than tesco points...

Depends what you do with the points. If you convert Tesco points to deals, you get a 2% reward on your credit card spend.

Spend £2 = 1 tesco point = 1p = 4p deal = 2% reward.
If you spend £2 in tesco, you get 3 tesco points = 6% reward.

If you can't use any of the Tesco deals, use a cashback card. If you can use a Tesco deal, use a Tesco card to get the required number of points, then switch to a cashback card once you have enough for the deal.

eagle

mark_jones13 wrote:

If somewhere doesn't accept AMEX I just don't shop there. I have a Gold Chargecard and I'm not interested in cashback I just want to get my MR points.

How dare Boots not take my card and still expect me to shop there. AMEX charge cardholders (not credit cardholders) have higher incomes and spend triple what Mastercard and Visa cardholders spend.

He, he! This old post reminded me of something that happened to me recently.

I had a day off and decided to do some shopping. Went down to Asda. The middle-aged lady at the counter started making comments about what and how I was buying! It went like this "ooh, nice wine and American Express card. That says it all. Who is she? She must be in for a good time tonight...!!!".

I was totally gob smacked (I'm not very attractive you see :-)), but it proves, AmEx definitely has some sort of status over other cards.