Originally Posted by
AllieKat
But with OptBlue that has changed with a lot of the big acquirers, at least in the UK. Now it is included with a lot of merchant accounts and to get the lowest rates you have to agree to accept Amex. But some unscrupulous shops (like My Old Dutch) will have cashier-enforced refusal.
In Canada at least (not sure if they are elsewhere), Amex are now cracking down on this, primarily by the fact that its extremely unusual for an Amex to never be taken by a merchant who accepts it. They are sending in undercover shoppers primarily to test merchants. And Global payments are basically sending merchants letters saying if they don't start to take Amex, they'll have their merchant account suspended.