🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001 14:49:45 GMT, craigm@earthling.net (Craig
Macbride) wrote:

>"Small Business Person" <nospam@nospam.com> writes:
>
>>American Express may not be quite as much of a friend of small businesses as
>>their ad
>
>American Express is not anyone's friend, as far as I can tell. They
>basically charge extra for everything and give nothing for it, except the
>name. They charge 1.5% fee on foreign exchange (at least, in Australia they
>do on their credit card), versus 0.5%-1.0% that most other cards charge.
>
You are talking through your hat. Their conversion fee is amongst the
lowest. The actual rate used tends to be better also. Have done a LOT
of international travel. They are also up front on all these fees, you
will have a problem getting this info from the bank. Visa/Mastercard
have a conversion fee +  the bank's conversion charge + they chose the
day of the conversion.

20 years as a card holder, never had a problem other than shelling out
the annual fee. Now that regular banks charge for MC/VI, I don't feel
so bad. As far being a merchant is concerned, I pay .25% extra
commission for AX and takes 48 hours to get paid instead of same day
compared to a bank card.

>Then there are the other ways they make money, such as being the only card
>provider that I know of whose automatic payment option doesn't allow you
>to pay off the whole balance! They hope you'll forget sometime or the
>payment will arrive late, so they can screw you for some interest.
>
Works for me. Blue card or Green card?

>Of course, when things are the other way around, they will hold money
>which they have no right to. I cancelled an Amex card in October which
>I had overpaid in the past, so it had a balance in my favour. Amex has
>held my money for almost 4 months and the latest when I phoned them today
>is that they claim that they sent the cheque "yesterday".
>
>In short, in my opinion, they are utter bastards and should be avoided.

Want to hear some stories about ANZ, CBA, Westpac..........