That sounds more like perception than reality. I cant find the figures for Amex, but Mastercard have about 20m outlets worldwide, and as a guide, it looks like about 30% of those in the States dont take Amex. Having lived in the States, I would say Amex is (unsurprisingly) more widely accepted there than anywhere else, so the global average probably is nearer to 50%
Look I’m not saying Amex is accepted everywhere or as many places as Visa and Mastercard. I’m saying it’s probably accepted more than you think AND the more mainstream places where most people do most of their purchases accept it too. Yes, if you look at total places then it’s low, but if you do your shopping at places like Tesco, get coffee from Starbucks and co, clothes from mainstream places then you can put the majority of your spending through Amex.
This isn’t an argument about what is accepted most, it’s just about the perception and that actually for a completely average person Amex is probably accepted most places they spend on card. For the places that don’t… just use another card.
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Agreed. That’s a long way from what you were saying before though. #justsayin
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Like others, I’d recommened AMEX as a modern card - but all depends on what you want a card to be used for.
I generally use mine for bigger purchases - generally stuff over £50, or stuff that won’t immediately be consumed, or just anything big-ish I might want to send back.
I’ve had a good experience with them for the card and fraud protection stuff when it’s been needed.
The app and web accounts are great, they do have a web chat feature which has solved problems for me quite well - although as others have said do have higher fees on foreign spend - about 2.5% I think?
I have the cashback version, and so far am due about £100 this year - so useful for that.
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Yep there’s one soon whereby if you spend over £10 in any “Small Shop” you get £5 back on behalf of Amex. A lot of small retailers around me have recently started taking it.
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Not really but we can agree to disagree.
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Funnily enough I’m just having lunch in central London with a mate - and they’ve just refused his Amex 
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I’ve been in places before which say they don’t take it but if you use it on the sly via apple pay it goes through 
Normally I never ask do they take amex I just try it first.
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Couple of observations on Amex:
If the retailer or merchant has an iZettle or PayPal POS set up they usually always accept Amex, and this covers off litterally tons of small Indy retailers, and this covers markets too, so we are talking some really small merchants. Amex have a very large corp presence in Brighton, and almost every small retailer I use accepts it.
If a merchant excepts Apple Pay, but not American Express, then in my experience the transaction fails if you try to use your American Express Apple Pay card.
Visa and MasterCard isn’t the be all and end all. In Switzerland Maestro and Amex are king, Visa not so much. Even MasterCard, where a merchant excepts Maestro can be problematic.
I’d like to see Monzo work with players like Amex to offer something akin to the (product) red card they interoduced a few years ago…I have suggested it before but a hot coral companion Amex credit card could be such a 
partnership opportunity for two very innovative customer focused financial services companies, and could be an interesting way to introduce credit card products to eligible customers who haven’t previously had access or experience of using them.
The (product) red card:
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What does product mean here?
We have a client that processes a lot of payments through Stripe. We found out recently that they have been telling their customers that they don’t accept American Express, when Stripe 100% does (and absorbs the fees as part of their standard pricing).
The client just assumed they didn’t I guess, probably because they weren’t seeing the higher fees.
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I use stripe card processing with my online business, and they most certainly do accept Amex.
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Ah I see. I knew about (RED) but wasn’t aware of that scheme - thanks
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Funnily enough I was just in an old pub where my mate asked if they took Amex, and the barmaid said “Yeah - this is London!”. Turned out she had spent last summer working for Amex going round small shops getting them signed up!
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So… perception. Interesting.
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I can’t remember where but there was some study done and those who use Amex tend to spend more than others on average so actually having Amex is worth it.
Takeouts are bad examples… it’s one of the few industries (hairdressing is another) where cash or a lack of ways of paying is still fairly acceptable. Online delivery services like Just Eat take Amex and personally this is more like what I would use.
I still firmly believe that Amex is perfectly capable of being a large proportion of your everyday spend. Of course there are places that don’t take it but most of your daily spend is more than likely at a place that accepts it.
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Can’t agree more. While at UK my Amex covers me almost everywhere, including traveling on the TfL. And with Apple Pay it is really easy to fallback to Monzo.
I wish it had no fx loading charge, then I’d use it abroad too 
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No, and there are some shops that do take Amex, and take Apple Pay, but don’t take Amex Apple Pay. This used to be a lot more common than it is now. Tesco recently changed to accept it.
There are also some shops that don’t take Amex contactless, and they also don’t take Amex Apple Pay, eg TK Maxx and Accessorize. You can use Amex chip & pin though.
If you had a pot called “Amex”, would there be a way to move money into the “Monzo Amex” pot when you use your Amex card? IFTTT for example?
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