Amex Interchange Fees

Amex interchange fees are known to being higher than others which have made it harder for businesses, especially small businesses, to accept the American Express card.  Amex is different from the Visa or Mastercard credit card as purchases made on the card must be paid for within a defined grace period.  Consumers don’t accumulate an unpaid monthly balance along with interest rates. More currently, however, American Express has made it easier. This is good news since it makes up a significant portion of transaction value in certain industries, especially travel, entertainment, and restaurants. It should definitely be considered if your business operates in these areas.

Here’s what is worth knowing about American Express

Amex operates on a closed network system, where American Express functions as both the card network and the issuing bank. And because of this, has a lot more freedom in terms of how much it charges merchants to process transactions from American Express cards.  This is unlike the open network used by Visa and Mastercard where under an agreement, an issuing bank  can issue a card using that brand name.

Like other brand cards, American Express still needs to work with processors (eg., Fiserv, TSYS, Chase, etc.) to process Amex transactions.

Unlike other card networks that determine the rate based on card and transaction type, Amex uses the transaction size and merchant category to determine the interchange rate. Before you decide to add Amex processing to your merchant account, we recommend looking at the company’s American Express Merchant Reference Guide for your best your best official source of information on credit card processing fees.

Below are some of the most common Amex interchange fees as of April 2021 from CreditDonkey. Unlike other card networks that determine the rate based on card and transaction type, Amex uses the transaction size and merchant category to determine the interchange rate.

*The credit card networks typically update their interchange fees two times a year, in April and in October.