AMEX - Shop Small November 2019

[odysseus]

To be fair though Ive noticed a lot of retailers are now charging surcharges to use any credit cards (and occassionally debits too), and about a third of the time the charge is higher for Amex. I thought the RBA surcharge reforms were meant to (directly or otherwise) reduce the cost for consumers, but it's actually made it a lot worse for consumers, as card benefits/earn rates get watered down significantly and consumers actually end up paying more as more merhcants than ever are now surcharging and the surcharges have not been reduced much if at all. Pretty pathetic to be honest.

The surcharge reforms were to enable different charges based on what it actually cost, I.e. to stop those paying cash and EFTPOS subsidising credit card payers. User pays model at work, which is fair enough.

Given the growth in credit card use, prices would have likely risen anyway, just the difference is all would be paying it instead of those where the cost is coming from.

 

[MollyJones]

The problem with this idea has always been that retailers don’t think cash payments cost them anything.
Time and motion studies show that card payments are significantly quicker and therefore they can 1/ process more customer transactions in the same time which improves the customer experience and therefore increases sales and 2/ costs less in employee time/wages.
Retailers have consistently neglected the actual costs of banking - counting cash, taking it to the bank, transaction fees, security of large amount of cash.
Retailers should embrace card payments and the fees are yet another example of RBA, ACCC etc stuffing things up.

 

[serfty]

The problem with this idea has always been that retailers don’t think cash payments cost them anything.
Time and motion studies show that card payments are significantly quicker and therefore they can 1/ process more customer transactions in the same time which improves the customer experience and therefore increases sales and 2/ costs less in employee time/wages.
Retailers have consistently neglected the actual costs of banking - counting cash, taking it to the bank, transaction fees, security of large amount of cash.
Retailers should embrace card payments and the fees are yet another example of RBA, ACCC etc stuffing things up.

That assumes the business wants the cash transaction tracked.

[DISCLAIMER]I am non advocating any illegal activity - I am simply indicating such may occur.[/DISCLAIMER]

 

[SOPOOR]

The problem with this idea has always been that retailers don’t think cash payments cost them anything.
Time and motion studies show that card payments are significantly quicker and therefore they can 1/ process more customer transactions in the same time which improves the customer experience and therefore increases sales and 2/ costs less in employee time/wages.
Retailers have consistently neglected the actual costs of banking - counting cash, taking it to the bank, transaction fees, security of large amount of cash.
Retailers should embrace card payments and the fees are yet another example of RBA, ACCC etc stuffing things up.

this may be true but if you are a owner operator of a micro business or middle aged couple running a milk bar or small cafe, the time/costs with handling cash may be seen as virtually zero,

years ago I had my own micro business and I much preferred cash as it would take me an extra 5 mins per day to count it and take it to the bank next door

 

[MathNerd]

Another year, another round of Shop Small completed.

I hope you all had a successful November with many credits and most of your cards targeted for the offer.

Personally only a fraction of my cards were targeted, and the disappearance of some of my previous haunts from the SS map, meant that I didn't get to utilise the offer as well as I'd hoped.

Fingers crossed for some better AmEx promos in the future.

 

[SOPOOR]

Another year, another round of Shop Small completed.

I hope you all had a successful November with many credits and most of your cards targeted for the offer.

Personally only a fraction of my cards were targeted, and the disappearance of some of my previous haunts from the SS map, meant that I didn't get to utilise the offer as well as I'd hoped.

Fingers crossed for some better AmEx promos in the future.

only had about 4 out of 10 cards targetted, map as usual was horrible,
didnt have any major problems with credits not being applied (had one that still hasnt been solved but thats an understandable glitch)

only difference for me was the fact that it was targetted

 

[daft009]

Managed 11 credits from a possible 15.
That'll do

 

[SydneySwan]

Managed 11 credits from a possible 15.
That'll do

I disagree and I am sure Dr Ralph will as well.

 

[boomy]

50 credits split equally between GoCard and MyKi, the two cities I split my time at almost equally these days.

 

[daft009]

I disagree and I am sure Dr Ralph will as well.

Yeah.. but time spent trumps $10 credits after a while

 

[Dr Ralph]

I disagree and I am sure Dr Ralph will as well.

I saved $750 on mostly transactions I would have made anyway.

That's worth the effort to me.

Even more so knowing now that if I kept the AMEX card it's likely that I will not have this same opportunity in 2020.

One of the primary reasons I got back on AMEX in Oct this year was for small shop. Without small shop I would have gone with a different card at that time.

 

[boomy]

Yeah.. but time spent trumps $10 credits after a while

Depends how one use the credits. If going to many different places I agree it can be a waste of time especially if you have more important things to do but when using credits only at few shops it makes little difference if using 5 or 15 cards at a time.

 

[daft009]

Depends how one use the credits. If going to many different places I agree it can be a waste of time especially if you have more important things to do but when using credits only at few shops it makes little difference if using 5 or 15 cards at a time.

agreed. thats how i got to 11 in the first place, splitting at the same place over diff cards

 

[Aus ATC]

Only one card here - my last transaction was a true "support the small guy" (on the last day). Bought 2 prescriptions that I would normally get from Chemist Warehouse. Paid $10.00 more than I would have done on a $34.00 transaction!!

 

[casanovawa]

H

I saved $750 on mostly transactions I would have made anyway.

That's worth the effort to me.

How do you save $750 with an offer like this that seemed to be restricted to 5 transactions per card and $10 saved on each possible transaction?? Or is that ovre multiple offers this year?? Or do you have like 15 AMEX cards + supp cards?

 

[SydneySwan]

Or do you have like 15 AMEX cards + supp cards?

I think you will find Dr Ralph has 15 cards.

 

[Dr Ralph]

How do you save $750 with an offer like this that seemed to be restricted to 5 transactions per card and $10 saved on each possible transaction?? Or is that ovre multiple offers this year?? Or do you have like 15 AMEX cards + supp cards?

15 cards, including supps. Offer on every card.

A couple of years ago I had 22 cards. That was when it was x 10 per card, rather than the current x 5. Those were the days!

 

[casanovawa]

15 cards, including supps. Offer on every card.

A couple of years ago I had 22 cards. That was when it was x 10 per card, rather than the current x 5. Those were the days!

That certainly is not messing about...

I'm not even sure what I would do with that many shop small offers, I had one card and only use it 4 times...