If you look closely American Express isn’t charging much more than Visa / Mastercard

As mentioned above, there is a rationale for charging a higher fee to the merchants up front. If you look at the breakdown of what merchants get charged by the banks and Visa / Mastercard, it actually adds up and the fees are very similar because Visa / Mastercard have been using banks as clearing houses, whereas American Express has had to use itself for that purpose.

I am surprised there is no mention of the lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice against Visa for antitrust violations for having colluded with the banks for years to keep American Express out of the bank-issued credit card business.

The piece only casually mentions that banks have started issuing AmEx cards. But there is much more "dirt" there on what Visa / Mastercard have been doing for years to keep American Express out of the market.

Why American Express is able to charge a premium on merchant fees

American Express is able to charge a premium on merchant fees because they provide

• higher-value customers and
• information from their closed-loop network that no other credit card company can provide.

Charging a higher fee on merchant transactions has nothing to do with being "a nice company." Also, merchants that supposedly accept Amex, but instead encourage their customers to use other cards deserve to be reported. There are Amex cardholders that are fiercely loyal to the brand and don't want to be duped when a merchant tries to make them use a different card. You seem to have bitter experiences with American Express, but that doesn't mean your personal beef should be included in the article.

Amex Advertising

This article seems to be a bit-one sided, and even bordering on "glowing in it's praise" for an organization that really isn't a very nice company. There's no mention of the way that it carefully structures its operations so as to escape banking and financial oversight in many countries, nor is their reputation for charging merchant fees that are typically double that of other card issuers (so contrary to American Express advertising, the most common phrase that cardholders hear at point of sale is "Oh... Do you have Mastercard or Visa?") mentioned.

They also run a "report a noncompliant merchant" scheme, where cardholders are asked to "dob in" (Australian slang for report with malice) or "report" merchants that don't accept American express so that the company can turn the marketing heavies on to the "offending" retailer. These are just a few examples from my own direct experience, I'm sure there's plenty more 'dirt'. A section in this entry that tells the dark side and balances out the 'wholesome goodness' that is currently reported would be, in my view, more than appropriate.