Whilst most major retailers now seem to accept Amex there are still some that don’t. I know many of us on here have Amex cards so I thought it might be useful to crowdsource some information on places that don’t accept Amex or have other acceptance issues (e.g. perhaps only accept via Chip & PIN, perhaps accept online but not in-store, etc) and highlight any potential workarounds that exist.
The next post will be an editable wiki containing a table. Please edit and update with information.
I suggest we focus on merchants who have at least regional or national reach, and avoid inclusion of small independent retailers such as the local corner shop!
This post is a Wiki. Click the edit button and the bottom of the post to edit it. To add new rows to the table, just copy and paste an existing row and edit accordingly. Please try to keep rows in alphabetical order.
Merchant
Issue
Notes/workaround
ASDA
Contactless/mobile payments not supported
Chip & PIN works fine
Arriva Buses
Not accepted
B&Q
Not accepted
For online purchases can use Amex via PayPal (I think)
Yeah I’m aware of that website, but I think its awful. You have to search for retailers individually and then click a couple of times to find out if they accept amex (presumably so the site can launch more ads).
I thought it would be much more useful to have information at-a-glance in a single list that focuses only on those retailers with acceptance issues. That’s the reason for this thread.
Just for background last may I put a new chip and pins into the retailer I work for. AMEX cards are different from the standard visas and MasterCard etc. Contactless is our experience is not possible due to the updated firmware and software required to accept the payment type this is not always cause the retailer does not accept it. In some cases as above the retailer will accept AMEX through chip and pin only.
That’s a bit rubbish isn’t it Especially if you are using one of the cards with travel insurance, fairly sure you have to have used the card to purchase to be covered in some instances
Hi o99. Thanks for your comments about our site, Who Accepts Amex. We’re always keen to learn how to make things easier for you. We understand the user experience isn’t optimal. In order to make the site financially viable we’ve had to make it this way. That’s not to say we can’t compromise and make it the site that you need.
To get the ball rolling, this morning we’ve changed the categories to show if a company accepts Amex or not.
We’ve always stated though that companies may only take your American Express card online, at some stores/franchises/branches/online, over the phone and/or via mail order, on all or some products and services. It’s difficult to itemise this per company as there are so many possible combinations (e.g. which franchises exactly).
The thread you’ve created is a great idea and we’d be happy to incorporate this into our site along with any other changes you’d suggest.
I like the change you’ve made to your category lists. This really helps us see at-a-glance which retailers in a particular category accept Amex.
Personally, I’d like to see you remove the two-click process we have to go through to see further info when clicking on a retailer. It’s the 2nd step (‘click to reveal more’) that really irritates me. I also get irritated by you automatically launching the website of the retailer. I find it perfectly acceptable and expected for you to have ads on the site and referral/affiliate links on your pages for each retailer. Its just the automatic launching of links and forcing us through more steps than necessary (presumably to launch more ads) that irritates me.
In terms of functionality, what I’d like to see you add to the category list is a symbol that indicates variable Amex acceptance at a particular retailers where relevant. For example, for Costa Coffee your symbol should not be a tick, it should be some symbol that denotes the variable nature of the Amex acceptance at that retailer.
Then when you click through to the Costa Coffee page the information on the variable nature of acceptance should be more specific than what you have, which currently is “If accepted, Costa Coffee may only take your American Express card online, at some stores/franchises/branches/online, over the phone and/or via mail order, on all or some products and services”. That seems to be an incredibly vague, catch-all type statement.
Especially if you are using one of the cards with travel insurance, fairly sure you have to have used the card to purchase to be covered in some instances 