American Express Merchant Account – One of the most popular merchant accounts around
“Never leave home without it." This is so much true today about the American Express card than it was when the slogan appeared in 1975, with a twist.Now you should not be home without it as well. More and more people find it convenient and safer to use cashless payment options because almost all merchants nowadays have merchant accounts for credit cards, debit cards and other forms of payment cards. For personal or business purposes, consumers are prepared to make use of those little, blue (or silver or gold) cards to purchase things they probably don’t need. For the smart businessman catering to American consumerism, the ability to accept and process cashless payments is a must. One of the most American of symbols of consumerism is American Express card.
One of the earliest of its kind, American Express was founded in 1850 and pioneered the money order business and quickly spread all over the US and Europe, followed by the traveler’s check business. In 1958, American express began to issue charge cards, initially made of paper but started issuing credit cards in 1987. Charge cards need to be paid in full at the end of the roll-over period while credit cards are allowed to retain a balance.
American Express transaction fees are on average higher than other merchant providers, usually 2.3% compared to an average of 1.9% for other account providers. In order to keep merchants loyal, American Express gave hefty discounts provided exclusively to the American Express merchants. Examples of companies who have exclusivity contracts with American Express include Costco and Neiman Marcus.
Cheap American Express Merchant Account
An American Express merchant account has been a trend these days. In fact, acquiring a merchant account with American Express is easy and the company offers several merchant account types to suit individual business needs from low sales volume businesses such as laundry shops and fast food restaurant to high risk businesses such as outbound telemarketing and online gambling. Because of this flexibility, a cheap American Express merchant account may be arranged in terms of transaction fees especially if there is exclusivity.
Previously, it is possible to acquire an American Express merchant casino account. However, online gambling establishments may have to say goodbye to their American Express clients, at least in California. The separate cases of Californians Cynthia Haines and Fred Marino who, after running up thousand of dollars on their cards, refused to pay citing laws against collecting for gambling debts, have made merchants or the account providers leery of accommodating transfers to online gambling establishments. Recent efforts of the government to crackdown on gambling has also made it a forlorn situation for online gambling entrepreneurs as legislation prohibiting payments made to online gambling businesses passed Congress.