Ken hAAmer

In fact he did.

Amex merchant agreements now state that there may be no difference whatsoever in the price and/or discounts between cash, Amex or any other form of payment.

Amongst other things, that's why gas stations can no longer offer different prices for cash or credit card purchases.

jarusoba

That would be good news then. But it would be difficult to prove that the merchant did offer the discount if a visa was used. Nothing is written

Stranger

But does that apply everywhere?

I just bought a couple of domestic Australian tickets on my CIBC Aerogold visa. They added an extra charge for Visa (less than for amex). I imagine it's OK in Australia?

But is it OK if on a Canadian card?

jarusoba

They did the same thing when I bought tickets online from Ryanair and Easyjet too.

If it is okay on an Australian card, it would be okay on a Canadian card. What would make it not okay is the merchant agreement, not the cardholder agreement.

ACePJB

Does this apply to CND and US merchants? Today at a Miami Airport Gas Station there was a sign listing the Credit card price and the cash price, approx 10c per gallon difference.

atsak

It certainly applies to most Canadian merchants. I read the fine print carefully as my industry works on thin margins (give you a guess which one). It's not permitted (Visa, MC or Amex) to surcharge. However, some legacy (ie older) merchant agreements don't explicitly exclude offering a cash discount, which is why you'll see "prices are 2% cash discounted" on some merchant's advertising. I don't know about American merchant arrangements.

For bigger merchants like Best Buy etc who can push their merchant fees down to the close to 1% range it's not a big deal, but it took me a long time to find a rate on non-swiped purchases less than 3%.

This is however diverging somewhat from the "Aeroplan" end of things.

I don't have an AMEX Aeroplan Plat. Doesn't seem like good value to me.

mikeyyz

Uh, for people with a lot of expenses being put on the card, the $500 is easily justified.

For example, spending 200k, you get an extra 100,000 miles, or a first class round-trip... Plus all the access benefits that you might buy a MLL pass for.

YXUFlyboy

Many merchants hate AMEX due to the higher discount fees plus the fact that they take longer to pay. They also have CRAP customer service in Canada. I've had a few merchants tell me they dropped AMEX for those reasons.

wali

As a consumer, I had the 2 plat cards.
As a merchant I had the business card.
Gave them up about 3 years ago because of the extremely poor customer service I received.
One of the best financial decisions I made.^
I get hounded all the time by the very same AMEX customer service to take the card again( spent $$$$$thousands on it)...I always tell them to drop D**d!

Hogtowner

I can offer 2 perspectives, that of an Amex Aeroplan Platinum customer and also that of a business owner who used to accept Amex.

First, as an Amex user, I will not be renewing my Platinum Aeroplan card in February when my annual fee is due. This is for a couple of reasons: we won't have much business travel in the next 12 months and thus the value of lounge access is greatly diminished. Secondly, my spend on the card will be going down, partly because my advertising budget will be reduced this year and partly because I am loading up on RBC Avion points (which I transfer to BA...hopefully they will be doing their 1.5:1 promotion again this fall). With the reduced spend, the "extra" Aeroplan points are not terribly cost efficient. Not to mention the fact that as a lowly Basic it is increasingly difficult to get J class rewards.

As a business owner who used to accept Amex, we dropped them because, as others have mentioned, they charge a bigger commission and take longer to pay. In our case, we pay 1.75% to Visa/MC and 2.65% to Amex. Visa/MC settlement was next day; Amex was 4 days later. And PB aside, I don't know anyone who has an Amex who also does not have a Visa and/or MC...or 5 or 6 of them.... I seriously doubt we have lost a sale due to discontinuing Amex.

As a final thought, and for those other business owners who might frequent FT, I have discoverd that Visa and MC have greatly increased the "surcharge" commission they now charge for "non-qualified" cards. I just went over my July commission statement and saw that half my Visa/MC sales had attracted a 1.95% surcharge (i.e. the 1.95% was added to the regular 1.75% to make for a total commission of 3.70%...Paulie Walnuts would be proud...)

When I called my rep at the processing company I was told that it was due to there being more "corporate" Visas out there and also that cards like the new "INFINITE" Visas (currently CIBC and RBC are converting their Aerogold and Avion cards to Infinite cards) attract a surcharge. And as a merchant who processes a fair number of phone orders I was told that I would have no way of telling whether the card I am about to process attracts a surcharge or not. Lovely. I am in the process of contacting other processing companies to see if they can offer me a better deal. We've processed close to 20,000 Visa/MC transactions in the last 12 years and have not had even one Chargeback. So much for a good history being worth something....

Shareholder

The ante is being raised by the ultra-premium versions of the Visa and MCs with Infinite etc. I never bothered with the AeroAmexPlat (even when it was offered to regular AmexPlat members as an additional card free) since I had all the AC benefits and it cost $100 more than the regular AmexPlat. However, I have kept the regular one but recognize the poor value it represents since I seldom use its various features like concierge, 2-for-1 business class tickets, etc. However, I know I've at least recouped the $399 annual fee by using the airport lounge program (assuming it represents $50 each time/same day I used AAdmirals Clubs or NW Worldclubs, etc.) and in being able to recover my otherwise out-of-pocket expenses for delayed or cancelled flights over the year. (And this year I got a free by-mail subscription to DEPARTURES magazine.)

But I am not sure about renewing next year. I'm using non-STAR carriers less and less, and my Diners|MC covers the same trip delay/interruption insurance and my credit limit is high enough that I can put any type of premium ticket onto it without a problem. AA lets you buy a daily membership for its lounges, and Priority Pass also offers alternative lounge access when not flying STAR. The only way I could rationalize keeping the Amex card is if I have a film project that requires flying myself and someone else to a location where that program operates, and we have the budget to cover one full fare J/C ticket versus a pair of economy ones.

Amex has sent out a teaser flyer indicating the benefits are going to be improved and we should find out any time now what they will be. For the moment we're being kept on by an MR points bonus when we spend more than $1500 this and next month. But I expect a lot of people are asking the same thing about keeping this piece of plastic. Having been an Amex cardholder since 1972, and a charter member for the Platinum card, I wonder what they'd do to keep me (and others like me) on board?

todd-r

Interesting, my spend bonus started at over $800.

Shareholder

Obviously another reason to dump them!

getaround

Mine is $4500,00 another person is $11000,00 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...highlight=amex

TTC192Rocket

Sorry to bump this up, but my question pertains to my Aeroplan Platinum card.

I need to contact customer service but when calling the old number on the back of my card and the new one listed online, the system says their offices are closed until the next business day (no matter if it's 8 am , noon, or 5 pm).

Is there another way to talk to a live representative?

Thanks for any help you can provide.