Someone who is about to renew their subscription (or get a new subscription) and would like to do it using their American Express card. If you are, please give me a call Monday any time after 9am EST. 863-303-4008. I will give you $5 off on your subscription for your help with this.
We received notification that our Merchant Account provider completed a deal that allows all of their clients (like us) to accept American Express cards automatically. Before I list American Express on the subscription and store sites, I would like to do a manual charge transaction first to make sure they got it set up.
As a American Express merchant be careful of the service charges they charge for "keyed in transactions " They are the worst for charges. I assume almost all your transactions will be "keyed" not "swiped" you will be paying dearly for that privilage. I would humbly suggest you stick to Visa Master card.
Ask me about the charges for the "elite cards " they stick "you the merchant" extra $$ for the extras they give the card holder.
Not bitter just been "bit more than once" :)
Same here, they want me to renew as a merchant and I'm sick of the tall charges, I will decline.>>>Dan
Hi Mike,
You need to know clearly how you are set-up to run transactions. If your phone order [manual keyed], card swipe,
or, even if you forget the invoice # and CCV # you will get hit with full "Highway Robbery" charges.
Read Carefully!
Nick-
I appreciate all the pointers and cautions. I know exactly what you folks mean, not just about AMEX, I used to accept it in my photo gift printing business I used to have. They do love to add fees. Of course that can be said of the others too, especially Discover. One that most consumers don't realize is that if a customer contests a charge on their card, it charges back along with a $35 charge back fee. Even if you successfully defend against the charge back, that fee remains.
We are set up as an Internet processor through Innovative Gateway Systems (an Intuit Company). When we do it manually, it is through a secure virtual terminal.
Interestingly, either AMEX has finally seen the light, or Intuit did some very good bargaining. The rates are the lowest I've seen AMEX at. The base rate is only 0.40% more than VS/MC/DSC, the transaction fee is lower than VS/MC/DSC and the "Card Not Present" fee is 1/3 of what it used to be.
Bottom line is on a typical transaction we run, AMEX will cost us 18ยข more. Given that it is isn't the prevalent card that is not really a problem. But I have had a number of people that wanted to use their AMEX to pay for a subscription.
Wow, a $35 chargeback fee even if the merchant prevails?? I'm surprised anyone wants to take credit cards these days.
I sold my business nine years ago, but back then I don't recall any fee for chargebacks. I probably averaged 1 chargeback a month and lost every one since I took phone orders and had no real proof of the orders. We provided a service, not goods, so the real loss was minimal.
Quote from: HighTechRedneck on November 08, 2009, 05:26:21 PM
Interestingly, either AMEX has finally seen the light, or Intuit did some very good bargaining. The rates are the lowest I've seen AMEX at. The base rate is only 0.40% more than VS/MC/DSC, the transaction fee is lower than VS/MC/DSC and the "Card Not Present" fee is 1/3 of what it used to be.
:) :) sucker bait, give a little to take a lot. They need to have merchants to fleece. :) ;)
With the new credit card consumer protection legislation on the horizon, they are going to have to screw someone, and the only one left will be the merchant.
Amex beat on me once too many times and I have not accepted in it in more than three years, no measurable loss of business.
I charge a handling fee for small card payments, which covers any fees, and which my customers seem happy with (or at least, understand). Customers are welcome to avoid the fee by either using a different payment method or by increasing their order value above the threshold. There was some question whether the law would be changed to disallow the charging of such fees, but in the UK fortunately the law has now confirmed that it is Ok to do so, and I believe other countries are in the process of passing laws one way of the other too. It will complicate things for me if the law varies from one country to another, but I can simply refuse to accept low value card payments for certain groups of customers if I chose to.
I've never been charged a chargeback fee, but haven't had a chargeback for a long time so I don't know if they are prevalent now.
I don't have any experience of accepting Amex cards. I used to have one myself but found that fewer and fewer retailers here would accept it, so apart from travelling it wasn't of much use.
My main bugbear is the rise in the number of people who want to pay by PayPal. I charge a fee for this too, but still really, really hate having to deal with them.
Jeremy