How Bad Will It Get for American Express?

I&#x27;ve been an AMEX user since 2002. I have a MasterCard also, and use it where AMEX is not accepted. However, I prefer using AMEX because:<p>1. It has a rock solid dispute system. I&#x27;ve disputed charges where the merchant didn&#x27;t deliver on promise and AMEX took really good care of it. Same thing with a Visa card didn&#x27;t go very well. You can do everything off the AMEX website and over email. With others, you have to call them and deal with lousy customer support.<p>2. They have a really good website and overall user experience. Its a pleasure to go to the website to see the charges, or to get a well laid out annual spending report. Their mobile app is also the best as compared to others.<p>3. They have stellar customer service. I rarely need to call them, but when I do, the wait times are in seconds.<p>4. They support mobile payments - Its the first one to be on Samsung Pay and I happen to have a Note 5.<p>FWIW, I just have the &quot;American Express Blue Cashback&quot; card, which no annual fees.

For something as fungible as credit card transactions, it&#x27;s hard to understand how a &quot;brand&quot; could be truly valuable. (Or is the grocery store cashier secretly really impressed when I produce my Amex Blue?)

This is typical modern Bloomberg reporting - telling a misleading, emotion driven story from anecdotal data and rumors.<p>&quot;The Amex people, most of whom had MBAs, sometimes found it amusing to deal with Costco veterans who spoke about starting out stocking warehouse shelves. Less endearing was the habit Costco executives had of referring to Amex as a “vendor.” That made the Amex people seethe. After all, they represented one of America’s oldest corporations. But they smiled and said nothing, and the corporate marriage endured for 16 years.&quot;<p>Seriously?

I was really bummed when I found out that the Costco Amex card was getting cancelled, as I was thinking about getting one.<p>But having read the article: good. I&#x27;m glad Costco did not hesitate to tell them to take a hike when they found a better deal.

&quot;And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure. You know, at one time there must&#x27;ve been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I&#x27;ll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let&#x27;s have the intelligence, let&#x27;s have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future.&quot;

Not a fan of elitism, however one good effect AMEX has on people who use their charge cards is to make them be more responsible with their spending habits. Credit cards make their money by charging interest on revolving credit, which steers people toward being less responsible with their spending.<p>Ironically, I think the people who would stand to benefit the most from a charge card, those just getting started i.e. in college, probably don&#x27;t qualify for a charge-only AMEX, whereas the credit card companies aggressively pray on them.

In my view, AMEX will not survive, unless it innovates by creating new &#x27;types and ways&#x27; of credit card usage. Eg offering multiple currency balances, digital currencies, using a card for non-payment functions, integrating with phones for security&#x2F;etc.<p>Their network is small and getting smaller, and I think soon corporations will just stop issuing AMEX to its employees for corp expenses (this were AMEX is still strong (guessing)) -- as there are enough attractive business-friendly alternatives are out there.

Anyone else go into a Costco and then try to pay only to be hit with the Amex deal, and say no thanks? I wouldn&#x27;t mind having a Costco membership, but the Amex thing really rubbed the wrong way, so I never bothered to get a membership.

I have been an AMEX user since 2005. I love their customer service, and I like that my card is travel ready. I do not have to call up some place to tell them I am traveling over seas. That is a huge benefit for me.

Amex has been offering pretty sweet signing bonus for new cards. I think I have raked in enough points for two first class international flight tickets.

Chenault&#x27;s strategy of pursuing the New Jersey EBT card program was when things really started to go downhill.

Article references Costco getting bummed that their customers could use VISA in plenty of places and that&#x27;s correct. However, I&#x27;m an AMEX cardholder and I&#x27;ve yet to run into a place who doesn&#x27;t accept AMEX.<p>However, Costco is right AMEX is just a vendor and if they can find cheaper or better vendor with benefits then more power to them.

i&#x27;d be more impressed if they hadn&#x27;t done the half-assed chip-and-sig thing and actually supported pins.

Goddamn this was brutal

Is AMEX really struggling... ?<p>I really had no idea. That&#x27;s really disappointing, how could that be?