Hey whats up,

American Express in Canada is one of the sponsors on this site. Thus I'm trying to develop a little discussion here regarding them.

I am interested in accentuating the positive and discussing the negatives. That's what this forum is all about.

Understanding that American Express is a corporation with flaws, like every other company, there are going to be complaints about it.

I have dealt with Amex on the merchant side as well as the consumer side. They are very stringent when it comes to collecting.

Having said that, they also try to prequality their customers a little more stringently.

Please feel free to state your opinions on American Express Canada. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to get some of the folks in the Public Relations department to drop by and reply to comments here.

American Express Air Miles

Monty:
I don't understand the purpose of your post.
Are you complaining that restaurants do NOT accept AmEx and hence, you don't patronize them?
AmEx is THE WORST c/c company on the planet.
They charge merchants double what VISA charges, are a month behind in paying merchants, etc.
They have a horrific system for consumers who don't pay their balance in full, and are quick to turn consumers over to the Dante's inferno of TCR.
AmEx outright SUX.
(Addendum: The girl in the one AmEx commercial who says "American Express - How may I help you?" is cute)

I was doing a little surfing and looking for stories regarding the American Express credit card and saw this article written by a young person attending Yale University:

Yale student Of course, I was dumb enough to bring American Express. I'll say this: There is a reason it's called "American" Express.

That reason is because it sucks. No, really. No one takes it.

Also, because of marketing, a lot of the ATMs only take Visa. So do a lot of the stores. If this marketing strategy was designed to make me want to get a Visa card, it didn't work. It did, however, make me think, "I hate Visa." Maybe that's what they were going for.

American Express Canada prides itself on being the card to use for Travelling and Tourism. Here is a practical article written by a person travelling to see the Olympics in Torino Italy.

He is having trouble getting cash out of the ATMs because most don't use American Express, they'll only accept Visa.

It's especially difficult when you're in a foreign country "that doesn't speak english" to get immediate service if you're trying to use American Express or other credit cards. After you've been at a destination for a few days and have asked around for who uses American Express, you'll know better who you can shop with.

This is true in Canada. Some restaurants where I live do not take American Express. Thus, I don't go to those restaurants with my American Express card.

I encourage Canadians that if you're travelling to a foreign country, do a little research before hand. You're going to need a certain amount of cash , and a certain amount of credit cards to make the trip smooth.

If you're going to a destination such as Torino Italy for an event such as the Olympics, spend a little extra time checking out cash sources and who takes which type of credit. There are many websites that will help out with this.

My personal example: I flew into Puerto Vallarta Mexico a few years ago. I was exhausted from the trip and disoriented when I got there. I ran into the same situation where an ATM machine ate my card on a Saturday and I had to wait until the bank opened on Monday. I then had to solely use credit for the whole weekend. Many of the shops where I was staying were small businesses that didn't take credit cards. Getting something to eat became a project!

I'm going to call American Express Travel and see what kind of tips they can give to help people like this Yale student travelling to Torino Italy.