American Express & Discover card???

[Chef_Joe]

Are you accepting AE & Discover card on your websites?

I am still torn as to whether I should or not. So far this week, I've had 1 missed sale because I could not accept their AE card.

Adding the two is an added monthly expense, and I am having trouble justifying the expense over the added sales.

What are your experiences with the cards? Do a lot of your sales come from AE & Discover card, or more often from MasterCard and Visa?

Thanks everyone. Please chime in.

[lml]

We currently use Authorize.net for M/C & Visa only, with Google Checkout for Amex.
Even thou we have text on our checkout page that tells the customer to use Google Checkout if they want to use their Amex...folks still miss it, resulting in a failed transaction.

In order to streamline the process for the customer we've applied with Authorize.net to transact Amex as well. Should be authorized in another week or so.

About 85% of transactions are M/C & Visa. Once we streamline things we should see Amex usage rise.

Make it easy for them to buy!

[concession-supply.com]

About 1/4th of our sales are on AE. We sell to many busniess that use the AE card. AE has more stringent policies than the other big 3, so read the fine print carefully. For example, most ecommerce buisnesses are considered high risk and AE may not extend you the ability to dispute chargebacks! So, should a customer ask for a chargeback, you, as a merchant, cannot dispute it, despite any evidence that the product was ordered from you and received by the customer, and your money is gone! We were leary of this restriction, but took the risk. After 2 years, this restriction was lifted.

[DaveW]

I thought that Discover was part of the MC/Visa thing now? E.G. you take one, you take all 3?

We do 20-25% on Amex and would not do without it. Why make it hard for your customers to shop with you?

The flipside is that most everyone with an Amex is used to being shunned :) so they usually have a Visa/MC.

DaveW

[ScribeTime]

We also wouldn't do without AMEX and Discover. Combined they account for about 20% of sales. AMEX especially is a definite favorite among business customers.

[wcsjohn]

90% of our sales are Visa/MC, then about 8% Amex and 2% Discover.

[rrw]

We do only MC/Visa/Discover, no AmEx--hasn't been a problem for us so far

[ritchey]

Amex charges higher fees, so I stopped them a while ago and refer people to google checkout if they must use them. Discover had no additional cost for me once I finally added them. I use Costco for my credit cart processing. I think Elavon is the current name, used to be Novus.

[gmcp]

We love AMEX, both as seller and buyer. Our merchant account is through our bank-Bank of America and we get all AMEX for a flat monthly charge of $7.95. AMEX is actually less expensive for us than Visa & MasterCard.

[Dave_C.]

Don't forget, most corporate cards are AMEX.

[Kanoa9321]

We love AMEX, both as seller and buyer. Our merchant account is through our bank-Bank of America and we get all AMEX for a flat monthly charge of $7.95. AMEX is actually less expensive for us than Visa & MasterCard.

are you referring to AMEX being cheaper as in the % they charge or the monthly fee for accepting AMEX? because Ive always know AMEX to charge a higher percent.

[piaf]

We don't get many orders with Discover, but we get a good number of Amex orders.

[BrigadeGames]

We love AMEX, both as seller and buyer. Our merchant account is through our bank-Bank of America and we get all AMEX for a flat monthly charge of $7.95. AMEX is actually less expensive for us than Visa & MasterCard.

This I don't think is possible.

Amex charges you directly for their discount rate fees (typically 3.5-4.0%) and you would have a merchant account directly with them. They are the ones that handle the deposit of the funds from an Amex transaction in your BOA account.

BOA may be acting as your cc processor and charging you a flat rate for Amex transactions (this would be the typical per transaction fee which for most cards is 20 - 30 cents per charge attempt whether or not it passes or fails.)

Most cc processors charge a transaction fee of 20 - 30 cents per charge attempt whether or not it passes or fails for any of the cards they process through your account.

If I am correct and you are not doing around 30 transactions per month just in Amex I would tell you that unless your discount rate is really good and your statement and gateway fees low, you are probably paying too much.

The other thing that can matter is if you have both a webstore and retail brick and mortar business and are using the same account. If this is the case and BOA is giving you very good swipe rates and very good MOTO (internet/mail/telephone) rates for non swipes then putting up with other fees that are higher than normal could be a good deal. One ids to look at your entire cc volume and all the fees that are charged.

[cekman]

I use PayPal for my credit card processing and take all four major credit cards. Wouldn't consider doing otherwise.

My main business card that I use for my business is AmEx and I have two my largest suppliers who won't take it. Every time I order from them I get 'mad'.

I pay extra transaction fees, I believe, on Paypal when someone pays with AmEx - but I don't pay a larger monthly fee.

This is a no-brainer for me - I don't want to give my customers any reason at all to NOT purchase from me.

[cekman]

This I don't think is possible.

If I am correct and you are not doing around 30 transactions per month just in Amex I would tell you that unless your discount rate is really good and your statement and gateway fees low, you are probably paying too much.

Flawed logic here?? - it would take just ONE LARGE transaction on AmEx to cover the fees. Unless I'm missing something?? It's not how many transactions you get with AmEx (although it helps) - but the amount the buyer is willing to pay.

If you have just one AmEx buyer purchase $100 or more aren't you more than covered?