Why do BA partner with AMEX?
Apr 25, 2017, 7:35 pm
#76
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Tim's absolutely takes visa. Why not have their own card? It's like a national currency, right alongside Canadian Tire money. As a trivia tidbit, CT money is printed by the same company who used to make banknotes for the mint.
Apr 25, 2017, 8:15 pm
#77
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Just to be clear, this was due to an exclusive partnership in the USA between Costco and AMEX - no other reason. That partnership ended last year and is now a partnership with Visa, so Costco in the USA now only accepts Visa-branded CCs.
Apr 26, 2017, 12:35 am
#79
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: The World ;-)
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Posts: 322
I'm sure this will have been mentioned before but its madness that BRITISH airways partner with a card that's hardly accepted in BRITAIN. Surely Visa or MC would make much more sense. I have no intention what so ever in getting their AMEX card as I had AMEX before and got tired of being told "we don't accept that".
Just seems so odd.
Just seems so odd.
Just think about it, virtually all proper supermarkets take it, virtually all petrol stations, public transport . Most restaurants. Even places like Co-Op take it. There goes most of your spending. There are some discount supermarkets but some of them don't take any credit cards.
AMEX has superior customer service (UK based). I was able to recover thousands of pounds in chargebacks over the years. Including one large Paypal transaction which no other card would do (the "intermediary" rule).
I only carry AMEX nowdays - nothing else, I often even leave my debit card at home. Amex acceptance has improved hugely in the UK over the last few years.
I think you should ask a different question, why would BA partner with Visa or Mastercard? I would certainly not want one.
PS. Most people don't know that, but AMEX is the biggest CC provider in the world, bigger than Visa or MasterCard (in terms of total value spent on cards).
Last edited by johnspenceruk; Apr 26, 2017 at 12:44 am
Apr 26, 2017, 2:09 am
#80
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Oddly there's a small Chinese takeaway in Cardigan, Ceredigion, where the only card they take is an American Express. They still use the old paper carbon copies to take payment as well.
Apr 26, 2017, 2:51 am
#81
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Apr 26, 2017, 4:44 am
#82
Join Date: Sep 2016
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Apr 26, 2017, 5:12 am
#83
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 209
AMEX has come on leaps and bounds in the UK in terms of who accepts it. A lot of merchants get it standard now when they apply for merchant accounts.
They regularly have promotions to attract small business. IIRC they now have a flat fee of 2.5% for small merchants, which isn't fair off the going rate for credit card fees.
I have a BA Amex but i don't use it as much as perhaps I ought to. I have a business platinum which I do the bulk purchases and just transfer the AMEX points to the private Avois
They regularly have promotions to attract small business. IIRC they now have a flat fee of 2.5% for small merchants, which isn't fair off the going rate for credit card fees.
I have a BA Amex but i don't use it as much as perhaps I ought to. I have a business platinum which I do the bulk purchases and just transfer the AMEX points to the private Avois
I would prefer the business one (as it attracts 40k sign up bonus) but think long term the car hire and hotel perks might stack up well against the 10k I would lose out on.
Apr 26, 2017, 5:22 am
#84
Join Date: Mar 2012
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Sorry to drag this OT, but I was thinking about getting the plat business card as well but couldn't work out if it attracted the car hire / hotel partner status perks that the personal card does? It doesn't mention them explicitly on the plat business page as it does on the personal plat page, but then it mentions other things instead. Of course I may just have missed it.
I would prefer the business one (as it attracts 40k sign up bonus) but think long term the car hire and hotel perks might stack up well against the 10k I would lose out on.
I would prefer the business one (as it attracts 40k sign up bonus) but think long term the car hire and hotel perks might stack up well against the 10k I would lose out on.
And also the spend requirement is £6k in 3 months on the business Plat, whereas it's £2k in 3 months on the personal one.
Apr 26, 2017, 5:36 am
#85
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Well, the machines used by small business do in fact take Amex, it's usually just the store trying to avoid amex's high fees compared to MC/VISA.
I used to work at a large Scottish retail store, that has a large showroom in every city in Scotland. Policy was to tell customers we didn't take amex. If they didn't have anything else we would get another member of staff, pretend to be makings lots of effort computer and then process the transaction.
I use my Amex around the highlands and 8/9 out of 10 places accept it, or I just used my lloyds avios MC which only earns 0.25 avios per £1.
I used to work at a large Scottish retail store, that has a large showroom in every city in Scotland. Policy was to tell customers we didn't take amex. If they didn't have anything else we would get another member of staff, pretend to be makings lots of effort computer and then process the transaction.
I use my Amex around the highlands and 8/9 out of 10 places accept it, or I just used my lloyds avios MC which only earns 0.25 avios per £1.
Apr 27, 2017, 5:58 am
#87
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Glasgow or London or elsewhere
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I live in Scotland and find a LOT of places won't take it. Any local shops, coffee shops, independent restaurants all don't take it.
Sure big chains (McDonalds etc) do take it. But many local places do not.
Just seems a bit mad they would partner with a CC not widely (certainly compared to VISA and MC) accepted.
Sure big chains (McDonalds etc) do take it. But many local places do not.
Just seems a bit mad they would partner with a CC not widely (certainly compared to VISA and MC) accepted.
The economics behind interchange fees (particularly with the recent changes) means that Amex makes more sense as a travel partner than a Visa or MasterCard - which you can certainly see in the differential in points awarded to other schemes that offer both.
If shopping online you can easily set it up to fund your Paypal account so you can use it for online shops that don't take it (which is a solution to a UK wide issue rather than an outside London one).
I do find that contactless is a bit hit and miss at places where Amex is actually accepted, which I presume is due to the retailers not having updated their software - but chip & pin works just fine.
May 2, 2017, 7:21 pm
#88
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Canada
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Isn't it only their own Mastercard, not any Mastercard? I'm assuming this is for in store purchases, I know online is different.
My problem with Amex is the annual fee. Last time I looked to get a card with similar benefits to my visa card the Amex annual fee was $700. Absolutely no way I could justify that.
My problem with Amex is the annual fee. Last time I looked to get a card with similar benefits to my visa card the Amex annual fee was $700. Absolutely no way I could justify that.
May 3, 2017, 4:01 am
#89
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We will check Grande Marche in due course.
May 3, 2017, 5:54 am
#90
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 101
I'm sure this will have been mentioned before but its madness that BRITISH airways partner with a card that's hardly accepted in BRITAIN. Surely Visa or MC would make much more sense. I have no intention what so ever in getting their AMEX card as I had AMEX before and got tired of being told "we don't accept that".
Just seems so odd.
Just seems so odd.
