Saturday, March 7, 2009

Hoping this blog tells American Express to stop their predatory processing fee practices

    If you are a small business professional, I would ask you to consider a seven-day moratorium on using American Express cards.
    Maybe, we can send a signal to Kenneth Chenault, the chief executive officer, that we are ticked off with his predatory credit card policies.
    As a small business owner, I have learned that the best way to do business is to ask for my retainer with a credit card.  Granted, I pay a surcharge for this, but this service allows me to focus on my public relations consulting services instead of chasing after checks.
    Every month, I process about six to 10 transactions from my clients.  Since I first added this service, I have never processed an American Express credit card.
    About three months ago, I noticed a $5.95 withdrawal from American Express.  I called my bank who said the withdrawal was coming from the merchant processing service.
    A call to my merchant service said that Amex had just added this service and that I had to sign a form and fax it back to them for them to stop.
    And, yes, I have been too busy to do this.
    However, I am wondering if there are other small business types who have noticed that Amex is taxing them for their services, even when you are not processing their cards.
    Perhaps, this blog could be a spark of a revolution among small business types who will all blog, tweet and communicate about this predatory business practice.   If all of us unite against this unfair business practice, we could get the American Express folks to stop charging us for fees that take money from us.
   

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