Nov 19, 2019

American Express pays businesses to catch up to Visa and Mastercard

Courtenay Brown

AmericanExpress, Visa and Mastercard credit cards on top of a pile of cash. — Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Images/Getty Images

American Express is paying as much as $450,000 to businesses to entice them to take its cards, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Between the lines: "Amex has long lagged behind Visa and Mastercard in the race for American businesses," as it opted for well-heeled customers rather than mass-market appeal, the story notes.

That strategy is changing as Amex looks to make good on a promise to investors to catch up to its competitors — which have pulled in big spenders with generous rewards cards — by the end of this year.
As of 2018, "Visa and Mastercard were accepted in some 1.3 million more U.S. locations than Amex, which had 10.3 million locations," according to the research from the Nilson Report cited by WSJ.

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American Express pays businesses to catch up to Visa and Mastercard

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