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Should I Accept American Express?


American Express was founded in 1850 in Albany, New York as an express mail business. It wasn’t until October 1st, 1958 that CEO Ralph Reed introduced the American Express charge card. Public interest was so prolific that the company issued 250,000  cards prior to the official release date. Today, American Express accounts for %24 of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the U.S., the highest of any card issuer. With so much money being spent on these little cards, why is it that so many businesses are still not accepting them? In fact there are certain businesses that should accept American Express, but how can you tell if you’re one of them? Depending on who your customer base is, not accepting Amex could be a very poor business decision.

When considering accepting American Express, you should first consider your location. Amex users tend to be more affluent and have a higher socioeconomic status. If your business is in a wealthier neighborhood, you would benefit greatly from accepting Amex. Also, if your business is located in an area with a lot of business professionals. American Express is used widely by businesses because of the great rewards they offer. If your business is in a business district catering to business professionals having lunch, you need to accept American Express.

You should also take into account what kind of business you run. This mainly applies to those who run mostly business to business transactions. Business to consumer transactions usually see a ten percent American Express usage rate. When you change it to a business to business transaction, the number goes up to %25. You may actually lose %15 percent of your business because you do not accept American Express.

Of course, there’s another side of the coin. If you cater to less affluent or more casual consumers, you may come out behind if you accept American Express. Consider all possibilities before taking the next step to accept Amex.

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