Does your business accept American Express credit cards? This article will review information on the American Express company, discuss the pros and cons of accepting American Express, and the steps to take if interested in accepting American Express credit cards.

Most American Express cardholders have had the experience of wanting to pay an online merchant with their card and finding out that it isn't accepted. Avoid this situation by learning about how to accept American Express cards on your ecommerce site.

About American Express

American Express grew from beginnings rooted in the express mail services in the United States one hundred and fifty years ago, and branched out to provide other services as times changed. These include money orders (beginning in 1882), traveler's checks (starting in 1891), and a charge card (starting in 1958). After winning a lawsuit against MasterCard, which had blocked its bank clients from issuing cards with American Express, in 2004, American Express received a large settlement, as well as a new opportunity to grow its business.

American Express has now added credit cards to its charge card line, but as of early 2009, it did not, as the other top card issuers do, offer a debit card. In a 2008 survey by J.D. Power and Associates, American Express led the credit card company ratings of consumer satisfaction.

Advantages of Accepting American Express

According to information on the American Express website, there are several really good reasons to accept American Express. First, as of November 2005, nearly a quarter of the American Express cardholders used only the American Express card for purchases in a given month. Second, nearly a third of cardholders in the same survey were found to use the American Express card for both business and personal items. Merchants can choose from two pricing plans: a discount rate and a 0% discount rate with a flat fee paid monthly. Managing your account online can also save you from charges.

Steps to Accept American Express

There are several different roads you can take to be able to accept American Express cards on your site. First, you can go directly to American Express website's Merchant section, to the page called "Accept the Card." There you will find a link to a merchant application, which is said to take about 10 minutes to fill out.

Another route to accepting American Express is to set up PayPal's Standard or Pro Website Payments  processing service. The standard service takes your customers off your site to a PayPal page to fill in information, after which they return to your site. There is no monthly fee, but there is a percentage transaction charge plus a flat fee for each transaction. The pro service provides processing right on your site, and this service has a monthly fee, a percentage transaction fee with a slightly higher minimum, and a flat  fee per transaction.

Accept American Express Sources:

PayPal paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/Marketing/general/PaymentSolutions-outside

American Express 209.americanexpress.com/merchant/singlevoice/USEng/FrontServlet?request_type=navigate&page=acceptCardIndex&us_nu=dd

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express.  Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express.  This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

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