Originally Posted by
mikesyr18
In fact, the U.S is probably the largest credit card market in the world when it comes to the big four, even more so than China. Merchant acceptance of AMEX in the U.S is well over 50%, and 90% of the time I don't have an issue with using my card at the merchants I frequent.
You do have to admit, however, that despite the press talking about some businesses becoming cashless it's possible that maybe merchants in the US in general aren't as happy to accept cards as they may be elsewhere. Why else would many/most gas stations charge extra for card use (in the guise of a "cash discount"), not to mention minimums being not unheard of among smaller businesses?
In any case, I'm probably going to start using my SPG card a bit more often now that there's an active bonus promo on my profile so we'll see if there's been any improvement in AmEx acceptance. (When I initially completed the minimum spend I could use it most places but did run into a few that didn't accept it.)