American Express Membership Rewards UK vs USA
Dec 16, 2018, 1:55 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 2
American Express Membership Rewards UK vs USA
I have a UK American Express platinum card and find it rather frustrating that the USA platinum card seems to offer a lot more than the UK. There are far more benefits with the USA card in the UK and some others seem to not make sense when they could easily implement them in the UK. Does anyone know why this is and if there is a website you can post requests to Amex to enquire about such things?
Dec 16, 2018, 8:05 am
#2
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Truth or Consequences, NM
Programs: HH Diamond, Marriott Titanium, Hertz President's Circle, UA Silver, Mobile Passport Unobtanium
Posts: 6,192
"Second, card issuers use frequent flyer miles and reward points to encourage American consumers to swipe their cards as many times as possible. This is because they earn a fee for each transaction. These interchange fees — falling under the broad umbrella known as merchant transaction fees — are charged by a card-issuing bank to an acquiring bank for the acceptance of card-based transactions."
and
"Internationally, interchange fees are much lower than in the US. In 2015, the European Parliament voted to limit interchange fees to 0.3% on personal credit cards, considerably lower than the roughly 3% here in the States. That means there’s no profit margin for card issuers to incentivize a consumer with a rebate worth 1-3% to swipe their card. Similar legislation and interchange minimization practices have occurred in Australia, New Zealand and South America."
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/02/why...re-so-high-us/
and
"Internationally, interchange fees are much lower than in the US. In 2015, the European Parliament voted to limit interchange fees to 0.3% on personal credit cards, considerably lower than the roughly 3% here in the States. That means there’s no profit margin for card issuers to incentivize a consumer with a rebate worth 1-3% to swipe their card. Similar legislation and interchange minimization practices have occurred in Australia, New Zealand and South America."
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/02/why...re-so-high-us/
Dec 16, 2018, 9:10 am
#3
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,953
I don't think the EU interchange cap applies to American Express' proprietary branded cards which would earn Membership Rewards points, but nonetheless the low merchant fee competitive environment puts pressure on American Express.