mandolino

Australia is far from the least AMEX-friendly country.
I use AMEX in Australia much more often than I do in the other countries I mentioned above.

In fact many businesses in Germany are "cash only", no credit cards at all. One thriving bakery franchise in rail stations wouldn't even take a €50 note. I had to change it at the DB counter.

It may be, as you state, because of regulation or lack of. However the overriding theme among cash-only businesses seems to be a desire to escape regulation.

Mwenenzi

And the chance to avoid reporting and paying tax

mandolino

For sure.

ryanbryan

FWIW, I'm an Australian and I agree completely, but there's little you can do about it. It's just the economies of scale in the US (and the penetration of Amex) that make this possible there and not here. The alternate is that they just don't accept Amex at all.

dddc

You forget that there is a cost of handling cash as well. My family had a business and each night we had to count the takings and two staff would need to do the banking each day for security. Then there was the lost cash when we were broken into several times - not the cash so much as there was less the $30 in coins in the till, but the repair work and time spent filling in the insurance forms. And there was the short fall in the tills when casual staff thought it was ok to keep the odd tenner for themselves. Thankfully we never experienced a live robbery as that would have been very traumatic.

Today my Dad looks at the contactless paywave technology in awe and wishes it was around 30 years ago as it would have saved him hours each week

mandolino

My barber was just saying that today as she runs a one-woman business and reckons the card machine plus contactless is the best thing ever.

turtlemichael

Because of all the costs and risks incurred in dealing in cash, as you so eloquently described above, perhaps businesses who encourage it with high credit card fees should be obliged to give credit card users a discount because these costs have been avoided?

Pigs might fly too. There are benefits to many businesses in dealing in cash in which the tax man should be interested.

To me, the costs of handling cash on the one hand, and the cost of merchant fees on the other are simply a cost of dong business and should be absorbed into the price as they are in most countries.

nux

I presume you prefer to use Amex as you earn more reward points?

The points don't come from Amex for free, the AU merchants are simply passing the higher Amex fees on to the customers that choose to use that form of payment.

trooper

Ive seen many places where AMEX is not even accepted... that approach..or charging the customer the fees imposed by the card company when they CHOOSE to use that form of payment...both seem entirely valid to me...

And you can take your business to places that operate how YOU want them to.....

Which is equally fair.

Demanding businesses cover costs to allow you to use ONE particular method of payment ... not so fair to me.

Annalisa12

Well at least you didn't have to tip.

The_Bouncer

Absolutely. Just vote with your feet. It's your choice.

I prefer to use Amex, for the points, the free insurance, and the second-to-none consumer protection when things go wrong. If I have a choice between two stores, selling an item at similar prices, and only one accepts Amex, that's where I'm going.

SpannerSpinner

Precisely why I said "or equivalent". Debit cards have all the benefits (for the merchant) but no % skim by the bank/credit card company. Except for the merchants that want to avoid paying tax on income of course.

These days I only have physical cash on me when I'm heading to a poker game with the guys, or going to some sort of outdoor market/event where cards may not be accepted (and even these are starting to become rare now, with mobile terminals becoming more common.)

Annalisa12

Cash only businesses are often just small businesses and can't afford to cover the extra costs involved in credit card or ATM payments.

I own a food business in Australia and we often get tax officials come in to tee the size of our store, staff numbers and the number of staff we need to run. They then go back and check our payroll to see if they match. It's hard to go under the radar when that happens.

flylikelinz

because if you want repeat business and to create loyalty and perhaps that high net worth individual who is using their amex charge card, they are capable of paying off in full every month to refer their other potential high net worth friends to your small store then you dont surcharge the consumer. Its the cost of business that generates revenue, its just not in clear site. maybe try a year without surcharging your customers and see if your turnover increases. i think you might find it does.

I have never gone back to a business or recommended someone to there if they surcharge. Im lucky enough to a UK membership to my AMEX cards and just call up and have them refund the surcharge, they then report that merchant for failing to comply with the amex acquiring merchant rules of which say no surcharging!

mandolino

I must say I've had a re-think about that after seeing the earlier post about the cost of handling cash, and discussing same with my hairdresser who concurred.

The system in the UK now actually means that taking payments by credit card is net gain in time/efficiency and security over cash. According to her.