[News] - AMEX Expansion in India?

[D₹V]

Amex cards have serious acceptance issue.

• It is accepted wherever Pine Lab, Paytm swipe machines are there. No issues there.

• Amex is in talk with SBI also to have tieup, so next month onwards, there won’t be any issues with SBI machines also (currently it depends on merchant willingness to Accept Amex cards on SBI machines).

• With HDFC and Axis machines, it depends on the merchant. Some HDFC and Axis Swipe machines, merchants have opted out for Amex cards as Amex charges higher fee to merchants. So, they don’t accept it.

• Another update is that, Amex is coming up with a dedicated drive next month to increase acceptance. This will include following initiatives

• Users will be able to provide details of retailers on Amex app, chat or email, wherever they feel issue with the Amex acceptance. Amex team will reach-out to the merchants to onboard them.

• They are in talk with major banks so that Amex would be accepted on their swipe machines by default.

• They are also considering reduction in merchant fee to drive acceptance.

• In last one year, they have issued large number of Amex cards and have doubled the list of serviceable cities. Higher number of card users naturally increases pressure on merchants to accept the card.


👆 The above is based on my detailed talk with Amex Customer Care executive on acceptance issue. They are promising that the acceptance will drastically improve in next 5-6 months. But let’s see🤞


• For now, 5 out of 10 offline merchants in metro cities like Mumbai are not accepting Amex credit cards, even in malls.

• Right now, best use of Amex card is Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Zomato etc. giftcards, Amex Reward Multiplier and Fuel ⛽️ at HPCL.

Post Credit: SpendWisely

Ps: above words are of the original author. My intent was to aware about this news only.

 

[Heisenberg37]

How did you get it as a student

I’m a student
I have plat charge plat travel mrcc
Axis VI atlas select samsung ifinite
Hdfc mb+ swiggy neu infinity

 

[sxchzy]

Why so? Any idea why have they made this business decision?

no idea
they had a amex scan and pay just like bharat qr but they discontinued it

 

[praveensudhakaran]

From Chennai,

The paytm POS machines are not accepting AMEX

 

[praveensudhakaran]

Amex cards have serious acceptance issue.

• It is accepted wherever Pine Lab, Paytm swipe machines are there. No issues there.

• Amex is in talk with SBI also to have tieup, so next month onwards, there won’t be any issues with SBI machines also (currently it depends on merchant willingness to Accept Amex cards on SBI machines).

• With HDFC and Axis machines, it depends on the merchant. Some HDFC and Axis Swipe machines, merchants have opted out for Amex cards as Amex charges higher fee to merchants. So, they don’t accept it.

• Another update is that, Amex is coming up with a dedicated drive next month to increase acceptance. This will include following initiatives

• Users will be able to provide details of retailers on Amex app, chat or email, wherever they feel issue with the Amex acceptance. Amex team will reach-out to the merchants to onboard them.

• They are in talk with major banks so that Amex would be accepted on their swipe machines by default.

• They are also considering reduction in merchant fee to drive acceptance.

• In last one year, they have issued large number of Amex cards and have doubled the list of serviceable cities. Higher number of card users naturally increases pressure on merchants to accept the card.


👆 The above is based on my detailed talk with Amex Customer Care executive on acceptance issue. They are promising that the acceptance will drastically improve in next 5-6 months. But let’s see🤞


• For now, 5 out of 10 offline merchants in metro cities like Mumbai are not accepting Amex credit cards, even in malls.

• Right now, best use of Amex card is Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Swiggy, Zomato etc. giftcards, Amex Reward Multiplier and Fuel ⛽️ at HPCL.

Post Credit: SpendWisely

Ps: above words are of the original author. My intent was to aware about this news only.

I would say 3 out of 10. I sent an email 6 months back with the list of merchants Amex is not accepted. They called me and said they will onboard them, but nothing changed with those merchants.

PS- They are all retail chain with multiple stores

 

[ray8285]

I can say acceptance has definitely increased many folds in Kolkata. Most bars / pubs, restaurants, stores in malls have started accepting amex ! It really has surprised me, as till around 2022 every time I would take out an amex, literally "sorry we do not accept amex" was the way of life.

 

[moonsmart]

Do Amex cards not work with Samsung Wallet/GPay? I was not able to add them to the apps. They were showing as unsupported.

Anyone tried doing this 👇

Post in thread '[LE] on Amex Plat Travel CC without any Document Check' https://www.technofino.in/community...-without-any-document-check.19339/post-414704

I don't understand how it can work but will try it anyway next time when I'm doing a tap-to-pay transaction.

 

[varun__goel_]

Anyone tried doing this 👇



I don't understand how it can work but will try it anyway next time when I'm doing a tap-to-pay transaction.

Check in your phone nfc setting if amex app is visible for contactless payment, if yes then it must work

 

[moonsmart]

Check in your phone nfc setting if amex app is visible for contactless payment, if yes then it must work

Nope, its not in the list.

 

[varun__goel_]

Nope, its not in the list.

Then most probably it would not go through, it automatically detects which all apps are eligible for nfc payment

 

[moonsmart]

Then most probably it would not go through, it automatically detects which all apps are eligible for nfc payment

Yeah that's what I thought. I guess it'll just do the transaction through the default app selected for NFC.

 

[rj_arora]

Nope, its not in the list.

SAME FOR ME

 

[shashankrt]

Amex cards have serious acceptance issue.

• It is accepted wherever Pine Lab, Paytm swipe machines are there. No issues there.

• Amex is in talk with SBI also to have tieup, so next month onwards, there won’t be any issues with SBI machines also (currently it depends on merchant willingness to Accept Amex cards on SBI machines).

Well problem with Amex acceptance is not availability of POS terminals. Problem is high commissions. Even if merchant has POS terminal accepting Amex - the moment they see Amex cards, they are hesitant to swipe especially in case of high amounts. Until Amex decreases commissions, acceptability will not increase.

 

[SSV]

Until Amex decreases commissions,

the moment they do this, they will lose their shine...
becomes part of the herd..
Its all about quality of service ... and quality comes at some cost..

 

[ray8285]

part of the herd..

That is exactly what Amex' been desperately trying to do these days.

the moment they do this, they will lose their shine...
Its all about quality of service ... and quality comes at some cost..

The service has already gone down. It has deteriorated to an extent that is hard to ignore !

 

[ray8285]

Well problem with Amex acceptance is not availability of POS terminals. Problem is high commissions. Even if merchant has POS terminal accepting Amex - the moment they see Amex cards, they are hesitant to swipe especially in case of high amounts. Until Amex decreases commissions, acceptability will not increase.

Do not agree.

POS terminals has been a major issue. HDFC has been ruling the roost in this too (We hardly see pine labs or ICICI terminals compared to HDFC) & this is the exact reason why Diners acceptance is not an issue compared to amex. Yes, some HDFC terminals do accept amex but then you have to apply separately for that & most merchants do NOT bother.

Until amex fix this & Pine Labs / ICICI become really aggressive to counter HDFC in the POS game, I do not see anything changing much in the future. It's ridiculous to see how much market share HDFC already has in this game & hence the diners dominance.

 

[sxchzy]

That is exactly what Amex' been desperately trying to do these days.


The service has already gone down. It has deteriorated to an extent that is hard to ignore !

Beg to differ amex customer service is the best compared to all banks out there

 

[ray8285]

Beg to differ amex customer service is the best compared to all banks out there

Agreed. May be when compared to the other Indian banks. When compared to amex standard, it is just not what used to be till even a couple of years back.

 

[SSV]

Agreed. May be when compared to the other Indian banks. When compared to amex standard, it is just not what used to be till even a couple of years back.

It is very difficult to maintain the same quality of service while in the rigorous expansion mode, especially so in the markets like India, after all the people work at Amex India are mostly Indians!!!! so in some cases the DNA is at play here
Apologies for being critical

 

[ray8285]

It is very difficult to maintain the same quality while in the rigorous expansion mode, especially so in the markets like India, after all the people work at Amex India are mostly Indians!!!!

Agreed, but then again a couple of years back too it was Indians only that used to work for amex India customer care. The training or something else has definitely gone a few notches down. Blame it on the rigorous expansion or cost cutting by amex !

 

[coolguy1]

The service has already gone down. It has deteriorated to an extent that is hard to ignore !

Any specific nuances or occasions which make you feel so?

I find it's way better than the rest of the banks but I'm unsure of how it was several years back so it's hard to compare.