AMEX not accepted or surcharge

[drron]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

If in Mackay dont eat at Angelos at the Marina.Wanted 4% for Amex,5% for Diners.
Just go next door to Satchmos-better food and no surcharge for either card.

 

[pauly7]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

Woolworths supermarkets next to surcharge for AMEX maybe?

Nil to no possibility there... Amex went out and secured both Coles and WOW with some big deals a couple of years back if I remember correctly. Such an icon account I think Amex would hold onto at all costs...

 

[SFSC]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

Nil to no possibility there... Amex went out and secured both Coles and WOW with some big deals a couple of years back if I remember correctly. Such an icon account I think Amex would hold onto at all costs...

That's why I was surprised to see the surcharge at a Caltex outlet, given the tie-up with Woolies. Don't know if it's just one local franchisee trying it on or a new corporate policy.

 

[JohnK]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

That's why I was surprised to see the surcharge at a Caltex outlet, given the tie-up with Woolies. Don't know if it's just one local franchisee trying it on or a new corporate policy.

As I reported earlier in this thread there are 3 types of Caltex service stations.

Caltex (no association with Woolworths), Caltex Woolworths and Woolworths Caltex.

Some Caltex service stations have a surcharge for Amex credit cards. I have not yet come across a Woolworths Caltex service station with a surcharge for Amex credit cards.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

That's why I was surprised to see the surcharge at a Caltex outlet, given the tie-up with Woolies. Don't know if it's just one local franchisee trying it on or a new corporate policy.

Franchisee's are free to determine whether they surcharge or not. Certainly in Perth a bunch of them do!

 

[SFSC]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

As I reported earlier in this thread there are 3 types of Caltex service stations.

Caltex (no association with Woolworths), Caltex Woolworths and Woolworths Caltex.

Some Caltex service stations have a surcharge for Amex credit cards. I have not yet come across a Woolworths Caltex service station with a surcharge for Amex credit cards.

Thanks, JohnK. I must have missed your earlier post at the time.

Looked up the outlet using the search link in your post and it is a Caltex Woolworths so either the station has recently started to charge the surcharge or I missed the signs as well as your earier post

Now that I have the exact details (address, station name) I think I may feed in a "card acceptance" form.

 

[NM]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

As I reported earlier in this thread there are 3 types of Caltex service stations.

Caltex (no association with Woolworths), Caltex Woolworths and Woolworths Caltex.

Some Caltex service stations have a surcharge for Amex credit cards. I have not yet come across a Woolworths Caltex service station with a surcharge for Amex credit cards.

And some of the plain, vanilla Caltex service stations do not accept Woolworths fule discount vouchers, everyday rewards card fuel dicounts or even Starcard or Wish Cards for payment.

 

[bd2068]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

There are Caltex/Woolies Service stations that have been charging a surcharge on all credit cards for a couple of years. The one on Forest Road Belrose in Sydney has been. I got caught the first time but accelerate past it now as if the cashier was a bubonic plague carrier. So even if he stops charging it I will never find out!:mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

There are Caltex/Woolies Service stations that have been charging a surcharge on all credit cards for a couple of years. The one on Forest Road Belrose in Sydney has been.

Yes this is a Caltex Woolworths service station not owned by Woolworths.

Has anyone seen a Woolworths (Caltex) service station with a surcharge for using Amex credit card?

 

[Keith009]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I fronted up at a pharmac_ meaning to buy a metcard. They do accept credit cards including AX (with prominent AX advertising material). I saw the sign stating a $10 minimum for credit card transactions, and thought - great, as I was going to buy a 10 x 2 hr zone 1 ticket which is above the minimum.

However, when the cashier saw my AX, she immediately threw the card back at me and rudely mentioned that it's not accepted as a form of payment if I'd only wanted to buy metcards. Turns out that to use AX I had to spend another $10 on other things in the shop or use VI/MC. When I rang up AX to ask whether this was legit, they contacted the pharmac_ to seek an explanation and came back to me stating that there's nothing they could really do there and then as the pharmac_ makes v little money on metcards and had to recoup the AX transaction fee. They did promise to "follow it up" though, whatever that means.

I didn't realise that AX would conduct an Inquisition on the pharmac_. Which would probably make shopping or witnessing stat decs (!) there in future a touch awkward. But I'd probably not want to enter the shop again, AX acceptance or not, if the same rude cashier is working there anyway.

Ended up purchasing my metcard at the 7/11 across the road so all good.

Doing a search on AFF produced this thread, and it seems practises like these are rather common. What kind of transaction fee must AX be charging to make them such an unattractive proposition for merchants? And if the fee is deemed too high, why would AX not want to expand its network by charging a more reasonable fee? Perhaps there's some branding/marketing advantage that AX can rest on vs MC/VI to justify its higher fees?

So far I've not had any major problems with AX acceptance, apart from my water company and a favourite local cafe of mine that's cash only (we still do eat there because they're just awesome -- though I must admit the AX acceptance at the other favourite local acts as a tie breaker when I'm undecided as to where to have brekky ). Probably a good idea to keep the VI handy for "emergency" situations, ie no AX acceptance within a 10km radius or something.

 

[Evan]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I have heard from 0.5% upto 3.8%
It all seems to depend on the deal done with them i guess. It used to be always on the high side but i think they % have come down for the smaller operators in recent years. One i know was at 1.7% but could ring and negotiate a special fee if somebody wanted to may thousands on there Amex or credit card. (A low volume but high value type business)
E

 

[rhjames]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I'm probably going to drop AMEX. They come up with special offers that don't interest me. I can't transfer points to Qantas any more, and I have more FF points than I know what to do with anyway. Some places don't accept the card, and others have a surcharge. They ring me to ask about offers they've sent which I haven't had time to read about.

Not once have I had a problem with Visa. I've carried both for years, but I see no need in having both. With lots of ATM available in most places around the world, Visa and cash will do me nicely.

I regard buying petrol at a discount using a Woolies of Coles voucher as nonsense. I have to clutter up my glovebox with receipts, then check if they're out of date.

Give me a simple world!!!

 

[SnowYeti]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

At least Woolworths have the rewards card now, dockets get loaded on. And you can link them with family, so you can all pool into a big bank to access dockets!

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I submitted over 50 "leads " to AMEX during the boni points promotion.

I received the standard "we are in discussions with....." about accepting the Amex card.

But not 1 of the establishments accept Amex still!

As annoying as it is, I avoid places that do not accept Amex. I was talking to the owner of the local coffee shop the other day and he is still thinking about if he should accept Amex. I doubt that he will though.

So my daily coffee goes to my non-local coffee shop when possible now and I use Visa at his albeit with a $10 minimum.

I purchased a new car last week and they claim to be on 2.75%, I find that interesting considering it was a luxury car dealership and they would be putting alot of deposits on Amex every single day.

I tried to argue the fee down but will end up paying $2300 in surcharge to get the points which are $128250. Worth it for what I use my points for

 

[rhjames]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I purchased a new car last week and they claim to be on 2.75%, I find that interesting considering it was a luxury car dealership and they would be putting alot of deposits on Amex every single day.

I don't think I'd be putting that sort of money on a credit card. Somewhere along the line, the card company makes money out of my pocket. I pay cash for this type of thing.

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

I don't think I'd be putting that sort of money on a credit card. Somewhere along the line, the card company makes money out of my pocket. I pay cash for this type of thing.

Yes they are making around 2% or $2000.... I have nothing else to worry about, for me the $2000 outlay gives me many thousands more $ of free flights

I have to pay it in a few installments of $30k thou, as that's about the max I put through the charge card each month, so this will bump it right up but nothing has been declined... Yet.....

 

[Keith009]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

Speaking of which, I'm quite surprised that ALDI doesn't accept AX. The boyf and I went there to buy wine to make Chianti-style beef rigatoni, as the cheapest wine we could find was a $2.99 Shiraz cab at ALDI. Rather than spending time going down the road to Safeway we decided to pick up some bits and pieces we also needed at ALDI. They didn't have any signs but neither does Safeway/Coles/DJs etc and we were in the belief that such a major retailer would accept AX. Unfortunately, after risking the fact that someone might just recognise me shopping at ALDI, we were totally wrong and they only took VI and MC. Thankfully we didn't spend more than $20 so not more than 30 points down the drain.

Not that I normally shop at ALDI you hear! :shock: Now there's just one more reason not to...

 

[oz_mark]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

Speaking of which, I'm quite surprised that ALDI doesn't accept AX. The boyf and I went there to buy wine to make Chianti-style beef rigatoni, as the cheapest wine we could find was a $2.99 Shiraz cab at ALDI. Rather than spending time going down the road to Safeway we decided to pick up some bits and pieces we also needed at ALDI. They didn't have any signs but neither does Safeway/Coles/DJs etc and we were in the belief that such a major retailer would accept AX. Unfortunately, after risking the fact that someone might just recognise me shopping at ALDI, we were totally wrong and they only took VI and MC. Thankfully we didn't spend more than $20 so not more than 30 points down the drain.

Not that I normally shop at ALDI you hear! :shock: Now there's just one more reason not to...

They also surcharge VI and MC. Don't ask how I know this.

 

[rhjames]

Re: AMEX not accepted or surchage

Not that I normally shop at ALDI you hear! :shock: Now there's just one more reason not to...

Other than them not taking Amex, I can't think of any reason not to shop there. (except I normally don't, only because there isn't one near me.) Oh yes, Woolies has the best bread.

 

[serfty]

I shop at Aldi frequently; among other items, I bought my 400Gbyte Hard Drive video recorder from them; it works fine. They do have some reasonable wines at good prices.

They charge 1% for visa/MC transactions.