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Accepting Amex

Discussion in 'Business Discussions' started by Aegean, Feb 2, 2014.

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  1. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    I recently began a contract with a US company to supply them with monthly content on an ongoing basis.

    They have a corporate credit card, American Express, which they insist on using for payment. I had to route through paypal for the first payment as I had no other way of accepting this card. However, when I received the first payment, paypal took £245 from the total just for processing it.

    Does anyone else have any ideas on another way I could accept this card? For me it's a pain in the backside.
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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  3. AssetDomains

    AssetDomains Well-Known Member

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    I briefly looked at sagepay for a project I think they process amex might be worth a look
     
  4. diablo

    diablo Well-Known Member

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    £245 for processing? How much was the invoice for?!

    "PayPal charges sellers a fee of between 1.4% and 3.4% on the total sale amount plus a fixed fee of 20p per transaction."
     
  5. martin-s United Kingdom

    martin-s Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like a nice contract if you lost £245 in fees?

    Why not just sign up to Cardsave and get a merchant account?
     
  6. ian

    ian Well-Known Member

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    I accept most payment methods but not amex. Found the commission charges to be very high and it isn't as secure a method of payment as visa/mastercard.
     
  7. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    I'm supplying them with 4000 unique product descriptions per month, thats why. Obviously I don't want to lose a large amount every time, and thats before I pay my writers.

    I used to have an Amex card years ago, it was a pain in the backside. I was in Baku for 2 months once as part of an inspection team on rigs. When I went to pay the hotel they informed me they wouldn't take amex. they refused to give my passport back and luckily my boss at the time had enough credit on his visa to cover me. I ran into a lot of places that wouldn't take it, so in the end i chopped it in two.
     
  8. diablo

    diablo Well-Known Member

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    I don't think the Paypal charges would have been any less if they had used a different card - and other processors will charge you a percentage too. Best bet is to look around for a processor with lower fees and no commitment to a long contract with monthly fees.

    Or explain to your customer that you were charged £245 just to accept their payment - and offer an alternative (bank transfer) or add the transaction charge to their invoice.

    You are right though - Amex isn't as widely accepted as Visa / Mastercard outside of the USA.
     
  9. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

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    As I recall Amex charge over double the commission even on PDQ machines, which is why most shops won't take it, because there profit margins won't allow this extra percentage.

    I also found getting an amex card to be a ballache, unlike most providers, who issue platinum to any monkey who applies, amex do fully check your details, so if someone pulls out a platinum/black/titanium/centurion amex the odds are good they are loaded.
     
  10. foz

    foz Well-Known Member

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    As Skinner pointed out Amex notoriously charge a higher commission on transactions (over others). So through Paypal or your own merchant facility Amex will get the higher cut from you.
     
  11. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    Thats exactly the problem.

    I used to have an amex platinum card, but "loaded" I certainly was/am not! Its not a good card to have as far as I'm concerned. High charges and hard to use realistically, especially in Europe.
     
  12. invincible

    invincible Well-Known Member

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    Whether it is of value depends on ones type of spend. Some of their cards can enable a very good way of accruing rewards. I won't bore people here about all of that because it's not necessary and there are other forums about it. Charge cards work differently to credit cards and suit the needs of some people better than others. The black "centurion" is the invitation only one with a £2k annual fee for a host of benefits (but only worth it if they are the sort of benefits one actually needs!) and is by invitation only. With chip and pin much of the performance of presenting a card to someone to settle a bill has disappeared therefore a black coloured titanium charge card won't be noticed like it would have been once. It can also can get jammed in some ATM's.


    (from iPhone)
     
  13. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    Absolutely, I use my Visa Debit card to pay for almost everything now. Plus, since my daughter was ill, I tend to live by the "if I don't have the money don't do it" ethos.
     
  14. max_rk

    max_rk Active Member

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    try stripe.com
     
  15. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    Good call, I shall investigate this further, thankyou.
     
  16. max_rk

    max_rk Active Member

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    You welcome. I don’t have personal experience with them but I heard they are disrupting the merchant account space with their one fee service.
     
  17. Retired_Member38

    Retired_Member38 Banned

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    If you're supplying 4000+ articles then the charges don't look that bad really?

    I would be wary of causing too many problems... content mills churning out search engine spider food are 10 a penny. Customers ordering 4k+ articles a month aren't. You need them more than they need you... when they say 'im sending the Amex payment now' I'd be saying 'thanks sir' :lol:

    I'd probably offer to let them pay by bank transfer and split the Paypal fee 50/50, minus their bank transfer fee. So it'll probably leave an extra £100 of pure profit in your pocket every month. I definitely wouldn't push it if they don't fancy it though...
     
  18. Aegean Greece

    Aegean Active Member

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    Allow me to address a couple of your comments:

    Possibly true, but most of the money we charge goes to my writers.

    they are paying for unique product descriptions at their request - that's what my business does. Its an integral part of the clients web strategy.

    They insist on using their corporate Amex card. I have never mentioned my paypal fees to them.
     
  19. Retired_Member38

    Retired_Member38 Banned

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    Yes but my point is they hold all the cards here - if they're insisting on Amex then there really is very little you can do about it, other than offer a discount to settle it by bank transfer.
     
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