After having a merchant account for approx 2 years accepting Visa, MC & Disc I decided to start accepting Amex as well.

Getting the account with american express was no problem. I got a letter today from amex about my account stating that my account has been placed in the "immediate full recourse program." In 2 years of accepting Visa, MC & Discover I've had one chargeback so I don't think I have a bad track record or anything.

Anyone else ever get this regarding their amex merchant account?

Does anyone know if amex ever removes accounts from this "program" after a certain period of time if no chargebacks are received?

That letter is not a reflection on your business track record... it is the default program that Internet merchants are placed on with American Express.

I don't believe that there is any set time that they will remove an account from that structure but you may want to call them directly at 800-528-5200 and talk to someone there in case their policies have changed recently.

Thanks for the reply. That makes sense, and is what I figured it might be.

How different is this from the standard visa/MC policy? Correct me if I am wrong but if a chargeback occurs on a visa or mc card the charge back id processed automatically and the merchant would have to try to defend the chargeback to recoupe the fee's.

Does this amex policy mean that even after the chargeback is taken from the merchants account the merchant cannot dispute the chargeback at all?

The chargeback policies of Amex, Discover and any other non-Visa/MasterCard card types all vary... so the "ultimate authority" for those policies would be those companies.

With a Visa or MasterCard transaction, you have a process that involves the interaction of two main parties - the Issuing Bank (who represents the cardholder) and the Acquiring Bank (who represents the merchant) and the rules of these interactions are governed by the chargeback policies set forth by the Card Associations.

So while your merchant processor can interact on your behalf and act as an advocate for you with respect to Visa & MasterCard transactions, the same is not really true with non-bankcard card types.

It is my understanding that with Amex, there is very little - if anything - that you can do to dispute the chargeback once it is accepted & processed by Amex against your account. This is one of the big beefs that a lot of merchants have had with American Express.

However, on the positive side - you're also dealing with a base of customers that do spend more on average. I can tell you first hand that from our own merchant portfolio data, the average Amex sale is around 70% higher than the average Visa/MasterCard transaction.

And accepting Amex is definitely a good thing if you are doing a lot of B2B transactions since it is a popular corporate card. Hope that info is helpful!

Yes thanks for the explaination. I never had any doubt that offering amex was anything but a good idea.

My questions were more out of general interest then out of any actaul concern over accepting amex.

Thanks again.

I just got that letter last week and canceled my Amex account today. There really is not much reason to accept American Express their rates suck, and no one uses them over 1 month I got 2 amex orders. Just added another merchant to the NO AMEX group.

I personally love accepting amex. As said they do tend to spend more money. Now we have only had one chargeback in 2 years and that was on a visa. I have never dealt with a chargeback from amex. So if that time ever comes we will see.

I just dont like working with a company that says the merchant is ALWAYS wrong no matter what the circumstances are.