American Express Card

What Is an American Express Card?

An American Express card, otherwise called an "Amex" card, is an electronic payment card branded by the publicly traded financial services company American Express (AXP). The company issues and processes prepaid, charge, and credit cards. American Express cards are accessible to people, small organizations, and corporate consumers across the United States and around the world.

Figuring out American Express Cards

American Express cards are issued by American Express and handled on the American Express network. American Express is a rare example of financial service companies in the industry that has the capacity to both issue and cycle electronic payment cards.

American Express is a publicly traded company in the financial services industry. It offers both credit lending and network processing services, providing it with a broad scope of competitors in the industry. Similarly as with traditional lenders, it has the ability to issue credit products, which it gives as charge cards and credit cards.

American Express has its own processing network that competes with Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V). Its most comparable competitor is Discover Financial Services (DFS), which is likewise a publicly traded financial service company offering both credit lending and a processing service network. With multiproduct abilities, American Express creates revenue from both interest-earning products and network processing transaction services.

The term "Dark Card" alludes to the American Express Centurion card, which is offered by invitation as it were.

American Express Fees

American Express produces a critical portion of its revenue from transaction processing. Many merchants acknowledge American Express cards and will pay the transaction fees associated with processing in view of the benefits that come with offering American Express as a payment option to customers.

In an American Express transaction, the merchant's procuring bank communicates with American Express as both the processor and the responsible bank in the transaction cycle. Merchant gaining banks must work with the American Express processing network to send communications in American Express transactions. American Express is additionally the issuer that validates and endorses the transaction.

Merchants pay a small fee to American Express for its processing network services, which are part of the comprehensive fees engaged with a single transaction. As both a processor and high-quality lender, American Express has fabricated a strong reputation in the financial services industry.

Types of American Express Cards

As verified above, American Express credit cards and prepaid debit cards are offered to an assortment of both retail and commercial customers. It is additionally an industry-driving provider of charge cards, which offer month-to-month credit with card balances that must be paid off every month.

American Express charge and credit cards follow standard underwriting procedures. The company looks for great to high-credit quality borrowers — and that means a credit score of no less than 670 — and generally isn't a subprime lender.

American Express credit and charge cards come with different benefits as rewards points and travel advantages, which depend, in part, on the annual fee charged. American Express cards may offer cash back on certain purchases, however they aren't among the best cash back cards currently accessible. American Express additionally offers various branded prepaid debit cards, which can be utilized as gift cards or unique reason reloadable payment cards.

Annual fees for American Express cards will generally run high: $95 for the Blue Cash Preferred Card, $99 for the Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express Card, $150 for the Green Card, $250 for the Gold Card, and $550 for the Platinum Card. All things considered, the Green, Gold, and Platinum cards have no predetermined spending limits. American Express proposals no less than six cards with no annual fee. Customer service for all Amex cards is highly rated, with the company coming in No. 1 on J.D. Power's 2020 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study.

Partnerships, co-branded cards

American Express issues many of its cards straightforwardly to consumers, yet it additionally has partnerships with other financial institutions. In the U.S., for instance, Wells Fargo issued an American Express card (new applications were stopped in April 2021, albeit this doesn't influence current cardholders), and in Mexico, Banco Santander offers American Express cards. American Express additionally has partnerships with different companies to encourage consumers to apply for its credit cards. Two models are its co-branded cards with Delta Air Lines, which permit consumers to earn incessant flier miles redeemable on Delta, and its Hilton Hotels co-branded cards.

Upsides and downsides of an American Express Card