Amex outside London/cities

safe_hands2

I've just worked out the % of my total spend so far this year on my Amex card has been only 51%. I'm still finding many places don't accept. I live in a town not a city, I shop in independents as much as possible rather than big chains. Does anyone else find it difficult to use theirs for the majority of their spending? 

jlfrs01

I've had my Platinum Rewards Amex for many years now and use it for the vast majority of my spending. I live in a town in The Cotswolds and it's accepted in most places, bar the odd shop which is when my M&S Mastercard comes in handy.
I like Amex's service levels which are very good indeed and when I've had to raise a section 75 claim they've acted promptly and refunded the money without question.

DullGreyGuy

It really depends on where you shop and what solutions they are using. More recent start up shops, at least around here, tend to use card solutions like Zettle or Dojo etc which accept AmEx as standard. If they are older stores then they may have followed the old fashioned route of just getting the card solution from their high street bank which is much more 50/50 on if it will support AmEx or require additional applications etc. 

Even most the old fashioned markets here take AmEx thanks to Zettle and SumUp

MattMattMattUK

I live in a town in the home counties, I have never had an issue here, even the small independent coffee shops and the ice cream vans take Amex. I have only not been able to use the card in one place this year, it was a pub where I was visiting a friend. I think it is pretty rare not to accept Amex these days. I have never had issues on holiday or travelling around the UK, though I have found that in Europe it is probably only accepted in about half of places, though in some parts of Europe there still seems to be an odd resistance to card usage in general. 

Considering nearly all payment processors charge the same rate now for Amex, Mastercard and Visa it always seems odd that some places do not accept Amex, I wonder if it is a hangover when they used to charge considerably more.

safe_hands2

I've been in stores that have the sticker on the door saying they accept it, and then don't. There's others where you see the logo on the payment machine, but they don't accept it.

I agree about quality of product. Customer service is great, app is good, like the instant notifications, just frustrated at not being able to use it in half of the places I spend money.

WillPS

The assumptions I work on -

If it's a 'discount' store, they probably won't accept Amex (Farmfoods, Home Bargains)

If it's an SME, a bit bigger than a local trader but smaller than a chain, they probably won't accept Amex.

If it's a trade-focussed operation, they probably won't accept Amex (but if they accept PayPal you've got a workaround).

Everything else probably will accept Amex. Except the places that don't - KFC and Taco Bell are probably the biggest exceptions now that B&Q accept it directly.

Those 'probably not' categories are getting smaller and smaller. Most recently B&M started accepting Amex, for example.

There are still reasons why Amex might not be optimal tho - they don't support 'on card cashback' schemes like Airtime Rewards (except Nectar's which works differently). They do have their own offers, which are typically more focussed on luxury and travel brands.

Amex is also not accepted by employee-perks portals like Perks at Work.

DullGreyGuy

WillPS said:

If it's a 'discount' store, they probably won't accept Amex (Farmfoods, Home Bargains)

Depends what you count in discount stores but plenty of places like Poundland, B&M, Lidl etc do accept Amex

WillPS said:

If it's an SME, a bit bigger than a local trader but smaller than a chain, they probably won't accept Amex.

Not sure what is between a local trader and a chain but still have found both single site shops and small chains often accept AmEx because they are using Dojo or Zettle 

WillPS said:

KFC and Taco Bell are probably the biggest exceptions now that B&Q accept it directly.

KFC are one of those odd ones now given with delivery orders you can pay with AmEx but not in store or pre-order via app

safe_hands2

If I just think about recent purchases, couldn't use Amex for:
Nhs prescription certificate

Library reservations

B&Q marketplace

Local petrol station

Ringgo parking

Smol order

Hive bookstore

Vinted

jbrassy

I live in London and it is accepted in most places nowadays (even small convenience stores). I manage to do 95%+ of my spending on Amex. However, I do find when I go back to see family in the Cotswolds, it is less widely accepted in smaller businesses such as pubs. In these cases, I just use Chase for smaller purchases and a legacy Capital One Mastercard (pays 0.5% cashback) for larger purchases. I think Amex is still well worth using as it's accepted in practically all large national chain stores and online you can often use it via PayPal. I can also vouch that Amex customer service is excellent when issues arise. 

WillPS

DullGreyGuy said:

WillPS said:

If it's a 'discount' store, they probably won't accept Amex (Farmfoods, Home Bargains)

Depends what you count in discount stores but plenty of places like Poundland, B&M, Lidl etc do accept Amex

Poundland don't accept Amex in all stores, actually. I have no idea why, it's not like the Co-op where some are run by differing societies.

Lidl is a supermarket.

WillPS said:

If it's an SME, a bit bigger than a local trader but smaller than a chain, they probably won't accept Amex.

Not sure what is between a local trader and a chain but still have found both single site shops and small chains often accept AmEx because they are using Dojo or Zettle

I appreciate it's a fuzzy line - but normally SMEs will have a 'proper' PDQ terminal setup, and in those cases Amex acceptance is unlikely. Little independents, market traders etc are more likely to user Zettle or SumUp or PayPal, in which case Amex is accepted. 

WillPS said:

KFC and Taco Bell are probably the biggest exceptions now that B&Q accept it directly.

KFC are one of those odd ones now given with delivery orders you can pay with AmEx but not in store or pre-order via app

It's not that odd. Their delivery is essentially a whitelabel solution from Deliveroo/Uber Eats, who accept it. Yum Brands (who own KFC and Taco Bell) systems do not accept it.

Greggs is another one, zero Amex acceptance in their owned locations. Not all Starbucks accept it either (although you can usually use your Starbucks Card still, which can be topped up with Amex). Same for Burger King, Costa and any of those franchised setups where the payment technology is not specified by the terms of the franchise.

Note my use of the word 'probably' and not 'definitely'.

daivid

Very much provincial here. Manage to get 75%+ on Amex, for me the most regular no to Amex places are restaurants, the independent garage, tyre fitters and bike shop and Screwfix (unless they’ve changed and I've not noticed).