"Phil Richards" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 10:37:08 +0100 Helen Deborah Vecht
said...

Amex & Diners charge merchants higher commission than Visa & Mastercard
IIRC.

Also they are slower at paying up the retailer who has to set up separate
merchant accounts with Amex & Diners. The rest (Visa, Mastercard, all the
debit cards etc.) usually all come under one.

My understanding about Amex is that the retailer can choose:
- to pay the same fee as with Visa and MasterCard and wait longer for
payment.
- to pay a higher fee than with Visa and MasterCard and receive payment in
the same timescale as Visa and MasterCard.

Either way, the retailer is worse off than accepting Visa or MasterCard.
I'm not sure what Diners Club do.

Of course Amex & Diners card holders (or "Members" as they prefer to be
called) come out with the statement "The perks are much better" as a
standard response each time this point is raised.

Yes, but we don't forget how those better perks are funded.