Originally Posted by
bostontraveler
Just wrapped up a 3 week trip around Australia. What is up with merchants everywhere tacking on a 2-3% fee for using an AMEX? Even hotels (pretty tacky in my opinion)! I've traveled to many, many countries (over 80) but never seen this practiced so widely.
I wrote to Amex Australia and of course they lied and said that "the vast majority of our merchants do not apply any surcharge".
Yeah, right Amex.
I replied with the list of merchants on the street I was staying in Sydney...each and every one applied a surcharge- restaurants, hotels, bars, stores...
Haha, have you tried your AMEX here in the Netherlands? You'll be lucky if they even accept the damn thing at all in anything but the most touristy places (airpots, car rentals, the biggest hotel chains). You can't even use it in the supermarket. In fact many shops don't accept any credit card period. Let alone AMEX.
You're lucky they even accept AMEX in the first place there.