Air NZ American Express Platinum Cards

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Air NZ American Express Platinum Cards

khull

1245 posts

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#101543 3-May-2012 19:34

For many reasons too long to mention, I am considering moving to an AMEX charge card. Does anyone have any experience with acceptance issues with NZ merchants?

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7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#619036 3-May-2012 19:54

Since the change to allow merchants to charge additional for the use of Credit Cards, there's less merchants differentiating between Amex and the other big two.

Personally I've found that I don't use merchants who add the charge way.

Disclaimer I have Amex, Visa and MasterCard cards and am not an employee of any blah, blah, blah...

nathan

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#619037 3-May-2012 19:55

theres a decent amount of retailers that won't take an AMEX, and I find it even worse overseas, especially in America itself which is kind of ironic given the brand name

khull

1245 posts

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#619043 3-May-2012 20:25

Exactly what I was thinking - just curious considering I am not getting much value from those reward points that most cards offer. The Air NZ points is probably something I would definitely use

lurker

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#619046 3-May-2012 20:34

I use my Amex card for just about everything - there are a few places that don't accept it, eg my optometrist and my mechanic, and some online services don't accept Amex either. But they all tend to be infrequent things, the majority of things I spend money on are all taken care of by Amex.

Handle9

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#619069 3-May-2012 21:24

We had both Visa and Amex for work and they took Visa off us. The number of places that don't accept Amex, especially cafes, is pretty large. To be honest compared to Visa/Mastercard I find it a bit hopeless.

skl17

26 posts

Geek

#619076 3-May-2012 21:35

I find that Amex is not as widely accepted in NZ as M/Card, but the majority of places still take it...the earning rate for Airpoints cannot be beaten and consequently, where there is little or no price difference, I favour the merchants that do accept it over the small number that don't. The service from Amex seems to be quite good as well and the free domestic return trip you get with the card negates most of the membership fee...

networkn

Networkn
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#619082 3-May-2012 21:42

Amex less popular in NZ, plus most retailers charge MORE to take an Amex or refuse to take them at all. Conversly in the US it's the card to have on holiday. EVERYONE takes them, their customer service is excellent etc. Personally, whilst I have an Amex, it's barely used, and my Mastercard gets a workout.

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nate

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#619121 3-May-2012 23:21

Handle9: We had both Visa and Amex for work and they took Visa off us. The number of places that don't accept Amex, especially cafes, is pretty large..

We accept it but only very reluctantly. It's the worst card to accept as the percentage is very high (we also accept Diners which is lower, go figure)

Kyanar

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#619138 4-May-2012 00:05

I'll be honest, you're more screwed with a Discover/Diners. Refer to the Family Guy episode where Peter opens a restaurant - it actually is a bit like that.

Yes, Amex charges more as a percentage (admittedly, I do not actually know how much Amex does charge me - they never did tell me when I signed the merchant agreement).

To those who complain about the fee being passed on though, did you ever complain about computer shops having "everything except credit card" discounts? It's the same thing... Basically I can't fault a company in a low-margin enterprise for making credit card users pay the discount rate, although I would be unhappy if they did so without passing on that saving to customers who pay by methods that don't incur a charge ranging from 2-5% of the purchase price. I am a little opposed to merchants in markets where the margin is more like 30-50% markup doing it though, they really have no reason to need to.

And yes, I completely understand those that discourage Amex, or don't advertise they take it. Though they pay for it in other ways (such as an Amex rep coming out once a year bugging you as to why you don't have Amex stickers up and trying to foist POP on you).

nate:
Handle9: We had both Visa and Amex for work and they took Visa off us. The number of places that don't accept Amex, especially cafes, is pretty large..

We accept it but only very reluctantly. It's the worst card to accept as the percentage is very high (we also accept Diners which is lower, go figure)

Don't forget the 365 day chargeback window, and the zero-recourse policy Amex has with small businesses...

clevedon

1059 posts

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#619194 4-May-2012 07:39

lurker: I use my Amex card for just about everything - there are a few places that don't accept it, eg my optometrist and my mechanic, and some online services don't accept Amex either. But they all tend to be infrequent things, the majority of things I spend money on are all taken care of by Amex.

Same here, I use Amex for personal and businees payments and the approx 10% of the time someone doesn't take Amex, I just use Visa. Amex Platinum has one of the best rewards scheme - and I belong to many different rewards programs.

We accept Amex as well for business, but every four or five years I negotiate a lower percentage rate for being a loyal merchant.

I find their customer service excellent.

nate

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#619454 4-May-2012 13:01

Interesting timing of this, I've got an AMEX rep harrassing my staff wanting to put up AMEX stickers everywhere.

My answer - drop my rate and I'll put your stickers up. Until then, I'm not promoting it as it's too expensive.

Kyanar

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#619468 4-May-2012 13:20

nate: Interesting timing of this, I've got an AMEX rep harrassing my staff wanting to put up AMEX stickers everywhere.

My answer - drop my rate and I'll put your stickers up. Until then, I'm not promoting it as it's too expensive.

They actually can't drop your rate - the folks who put up stickers don't actually work for AmEx, they just get paid to go out and offer new POP to merchants who don't have any (or who, in AmEx's professional opinion, don't have enough). Incidentally, they're paid per sticker so the kindest thing to do is either say "no" outright or take the stickers, then remove them once they leave. (I used to work for the company contracted to do this).

nate

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#619535 4-May-2012 14:09

Kyanar:
nate: Interesting timing of this, I've got an AMEX rep harrassing my staff wanting to put up AMEX stickers everywhere.

My answer - drop my rate and I'll put your stickers up. Until then, I'm not promoting it as it's too expensive.

They actually can't drop your rate - the folks who put up stickers don't actually work for AmEx, they just get paid to go out and offer new POP to merchants who don't have any (or who, in AmEx's professional opinion, don't have enough). Incidentally, they're paid per sticker so the kindest thing to do is either say "no" outright or take the stickers, then remove them once they leave. (I used to work for the company contracted to do this).

Aaaah. Good to know.

khull

1245 posts

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#619776 4-May-2012 19:39

So for Amex cards (other than the current range) - they still do not have the embedded security chip. Is this going to be an issue in NZ?

skl17

26 posts

Geek

#619780 4-May-2012 19:43

Mine has an embedded chip?

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