American Express Card Usage Tips

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The following tips are provided to help AMEX users in situations where a merchant may be reluctant to accept the card. For liability and disclaimer reasons, please be advised that the following does not constitute legal advice.

Where a minimum purchase requirement is imposed

Often, this can be circumvented by offering the merchant additional revenue by rounding the purchase up to the minimum purchase amount (eg. a $9.70 transaction rounded up to $10). If the purchase amount is considerably smaller than the stated minimum, offering to cover the processing fee (typically suggest a few % or a nominal amount (~50c)) can lead to success. Specific to Australia Post (with a $10- minimum), if your purchase totals $9.99, you can always purchase a 5c stamp to bring the total to $10.04 – which can now be paid for with AMEX.

Where an AMEX-specific surcharge is imposed

In cases of larger stores, such a surcharge may be the result of a decision from head office, and most sales clerks are not able to use discretion to avoid this fee. If you are dealing with a general retail store, or with a website that automatically adds the surcharge when the card type is selected or the card number is entered, it is unlikely that you will be able to have the surcharge waived. After speaking to a number of sales staff (who work on commission), they have hinted to me that the larger the purchase value, the higher the chances are of having the surcharge waived. To satisfy computer system (and store) requirements, they will often have to manually reduce the original price, and then apply the surcharge on top (which effectively lets the system permit the AMEX transaction for the original pre-surcharge amount). If shopping in a smaller (mum and pop) store, you have more options. If a reasonably high surcharge is being imposed for AMEX, and no surcharge applies to Visa/MasterCard, you may have bargaining power by offering to pay the difference between the Visa/MC premium merchant rate, and that of AMEX. By requesting this, it can also be helpful to mention that you will purchase x, y and z if they were willing to let you do this. To them, this then costs no more than a Visa/MC transaction, they are making an extra sale, and you are benefiting by not having to pay as much in transaction fees.

Price matching

Keep in mind that many stores are willing to price match their competitors, so long as you can prove that their competitors’ prices are current. For example, taking a printed catalogue into The Good Guys allows you to buy an item at an often reduced price (once price matching has been completed), and can then pay by American Express (with no surcharge). Obviously, this is a much better result than simply purchasing the same item at a surcharging merchant.

A restaurant/petrol station does not advise of AMEX surcharge until it’s too late

It is a legal requirement for a business that imposes payment surcharges to ensure that the customer is fully aware of any such surcharge before a transaction is entered into. In the case of restaurants, this is either by verbal notification from the waiter prior to ordering, or more preferably, such notice is printed on the restaurant’s menus. In the case of petrol stations, this information must be prominently displayed on the bowser itself. You could easily threaten to withhold payment until such time as they agree to accept your payment in reflection of the conditions that you were presented before a transaction was entered into. Examples of inadequate surcharge disclosures include a restaurant only detailing the surcharge when providing the bill, or where a restaurant or petrol station only gives surcharge information once at the counter after the goods have been consumed. A reminder, this does not constitute legal advise, and should serve only as a guide. For legal advice, consult a legal professional.

You encounter a business that does not accept American Express at all

This can be particularly annoying, considering that the merchant service fees for businesses are actually tax deductible… Nonetheless, you can always have a quick word to the manager that you would prefer to pay by AMEX, and that you will shop there muchmore frequently if they decide to accept it. You should then bring the business to AMEX’s attention, which can be done via their website. This form can also be used to report businesses that accept AMEX, but impose a surcharge.