American Express credit cards

[suprapsu]

There are 4 major credit cards accepted.

It is as follows:
Visa
Mastercard
Discovercard
American Express

The most frequently used is as follows:
1)Visa, than comes 2)Mastercard, 3)American Express and 3)Discover is last.

Does anyone know if the American Express cardholders spend more on an average order compared to the visa/mastercard holders?

The reason why I ask is because American Express is only issued to people we have good credit and since its a charge card it has to be paid off at the end of each month. My theory is people with Amex is more likely to spend more than the average joe.

Anyone here have any experiences that hold true?

[Rugles]

I have never noticed if AmEx users are spending more, but if you have b2b clients they tend to want to use AmEx.
We try to discourage our customers from using AmEx because of the HUGE (when compared to the other cards) commission that they take.

[Miklo]

Well, Amex users tend to spend more on the whole, which doesn't mean that they will buy more on YOUR website. But according to their ads and folders, they tend to spend 20% more online on average. However, this is what Amex says...so I'm not sure if you can take this for granted. (Just like with any Bush statement :))

[Corey Bryant]

Actually AmEx has different programs now & some do not require you to pay the balance monthly. We primarily use AmEx ourselves because of the "extras" they offer

-Corey

[BroadLea]

Results from my quick analysis of 3700 online orders for home decor products (both retail and wholesale sales):

CARD % OF ORDERS AVG SALE 
Amex   7 45.66 
Discover  4 32.80 
MasterCard 32 44.71 
Visa  57 45.86 

[derekwong28]

The real issue here is whether accepting AMEX cards will lead to an increase in your sales. This is extremely arguable as the vast majoriry of AMEX card holders would also have VISA or Mastercards.

[Lord Majestic]

This is extremely arguable as the vast majoriry of AMEX card holders would also have VISA or Mastercards.

Last time I researched this question (big UK B2C e-tailer) it transpired that 90% of AmEx cardholder have proper card (Visa/MC), and thanks to higher AmEx charges it made economic sense to abandon accepting it and saved money on charges would have offset lost margin from not offering it as means of payment!

[Corey Bryant]

The real problem for internet merchants though is AmEx's chargeback policies. I have seen merchants complaining that thay have had chargebacks from as long as 18 month after the purchase (and it was not a yearly purchase).

-Corey

[Corey Bryant]

Found this link: [usatoday.com...] - I totally forgot about it.

-Corey

[Christi]

We offer AmEx for the customer's convenience...and I know, because I'm one of them. Yes, I have a Visa card, but I know my AmEx number by heart and don't have to go running for the card out of my wallet. Personal thing, I guess, but that article mentioned loyalty, and sometimes you just want to pay for your goods and services at the end of the month, not just lump it all into "the Visa bill."

Just fyi, we've never had a chargeback from AmEx.

[LostOne]

"I have seen merchants complaining that thay have had chargebacks from as long as 18 month after the purchase"

That's all I needed to hear. Time to axe AE

[mansterfred]

When push comes to shove AMEX is a poor card. My experience is from being a previous user of the card. We bought some software that was supposed to run on a certain OS on Macintosh. It did not work even though it stated this on the box. We called the vendor, he readily admitted it would not work on the platform we had and suggested we upgrade our hardware. So next we called Amex about the problem and guarantee…………. And guess what they just side stepped it saying we opened the software blah blah blah. Did not care that the merchant said it would not work or that it was advertised as such. We had to go to court to get $2,000.
AMEX is a junk company, they treat the clients like numbers and I for one would never accept the card, as I know what a lame company is behind it. I can tell you in 15 years of not accepting Amex I cannot think of a sale lost. Yes some customers were put thru an extra hoop, but they all found alternatives. As for loyal Amex customers, wait until you really have a problem!

[spikey]

Never even considered it until I read this post so I checked it out. Voila, our AmEx customer's orders are about 10% higher than Visa and MC (Health & Beauty B2C site).