How many customers AMEX and Discover?

[beautykat]

Wonder if anyone has any data on how many online customers using AMEX and Discover? Is it important to have these 2 payments options? Are VISA and Master sufficient?

[Corey Bryant]

Visa and Mastercard are usually sufficient. Studies do show that if someone has a an Amex or Discover, 95% of those will also have a Visa or MasterCard.

There is hese threads: [webmasterworld.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]

Which might be enlightening also.

-Corey

[ogletree]

If you want to get businesses to buy you need to take AMEX. There are a lot of people me included that only have a company AMEX card.

[mastervisa]

Amex has 5 or 6 different card programs now. AMEX Corporate cards are popular with businesses that's true. You could do without Discover, but might as well take them all. AMEX generally has slightly higher processing fees. I see monthly merchant reports, less than 5% Amex and maybe 2% Discover from merchants. See more AMEX in retail than online.

[JonR28]

I accept Amex, all my Amex orders seem to be bigger charges. I like Amex. Seems like I get less fraud on Amex cards too.

Usually it doesn't cost anything extra to add Amex and Discover support, might as well do it right?

[CernyM]

At least for my merchant account, Amex refunds the discount fees when I issue credits back to customers cards. Visa/MC keep the fee even if I issue refunds.

I'm in the apparel business, returns and exchanges are a fact of life. The fee refund sort of balances out the higher discount rates for us.

Amex does tend to hold onto our money an extra day or two beyond the Visa/MC accounts though.

[sun818]

I don't think it hurts to carry AmEx and Discover. I find that overall, processing rate is about 3% for me all-inclusive (with chargeback, monthly statement fees, transaction fees, etc). I sell to a lot of businesses and find that AmEx business customers buy more and rarely want a refund.

When I take orders on the phone, I will say ask if they are paying by Visa or MasterCard first. Most of the times, customers have one of these cards. If a customer asks about AmEx or Discover, that is when I offer that payment method.

[mastervisa]

CernyM wrote:
"Amex refunds the discount fees when I issue credits back to customers cards. Visa/MC keep the fee even if I issue refunds."

Actually some merchant banks will give back the MC/VISA discount fees if you ask for it. Its not well known you can do that, ssshhh. But if you call your MAP and request it, some will rewrite your contract. Sometimes it depends on your volume. See if you can get those fees back when you are the getting the merchant account set up in the beginning.

[CernyM]

But if you call your MAP and request it, some will rewrite your contract.

That is indeed nice to know.

[beautykat]

Looks like the consensus is as such,

1) AMEX typically generates higher sales

2) It is more suitable for B2B than to B2C operations

3) AMEX do cost more to process

4) AMEX tends to give a upscale image to a website

Still adding more to this.....

[jcall]

consider accepting debit cards also - - there are still at least a few Visa/MC debit cards out there that don't work properly unless they're run as debit cards.

I know, I know, they're all supposed to work just like the major card logo that they have, but not all of them do.

I know that some contracts charge you a lower percentage, or lower fees, if you charge as a debit card vs. credit card (for those cards that are both).

-jared

[mastervisa]

you have to be set up for debit to take debit, otherwise it is usually treated as a credit card. A couple of months ago I read where debit card usage actually passed credit card usage in volume amounts.

[Automan Empire]

I'm just entering the ecommerce world now, but I can speak from bricks and mortar experience on this.
AMEX customers tend to be more affluent, spend far more, and are generally more efficient as customers, probably on account of being experienced businesspeople themselves. Fellow merchants in my industry like to complain about the higher fees, but the most successful usually find the card worth taking.
If you sell high-end widgets, AMEX is a must. If you sell to the wal-mart demographic, you're not likely to miss AMEX.