[anonymousiam]

American Express handles their own fraud cases. Their cards are generally not issued by banks. I have no association with them other than being a card member since 1982, but their customer service is far better than Visa/MC, and yes, you can get a card from them with no annual fees + perks.

[xxpor]

The card is still issued by a bank, the bank is called American Express National Bank. Someone has to extend the actual credit.

[sgjohnson]

Yes, but AmEx is vertically integrated, and they have 0 interest in shitting in their own backyard just to marginally increase the profit margin.

Visa/MC can afford to just not care, because there’s always someone else who’ll pick up the tab. Which simply is not an option for AmEx.

[Johnny555]

their customer service is far better than Visa/MC

I used to think that (and maybe it was true once), but haven't found that to be the case, I've had far better experience from Chase for my Sapphire card.

My wife recently ran into a problem with a booking through Amex's own travel service, the hotel said they had a reservation, but not payment, but we paid for the room at Amex travel. So we figured no problem, just pay the hotel directly (their rate was even lower than Amex) and call Amex to have them remove their charge.

It took 5 calls over several days to finally talk to someone who could help, and it still took 3 days for the charge to be reversed. And this is for a Platinum card.

[aidenn0]

IMO AmEx is still better than most banks, but my Chase card has definitely had better service in the past few years. Back in the day Discover had wonderful service, but I stopped carrying one because too many merchants wouldn't accept it.

[starwind]

I've had problems with AmEx for travel issues but never problems for return protection or charge backs (except in one weird case but they fixed it like a year later). I do travel and dining on my Sapphire and everything else on my AmEx

[nxm]

Unfortunately at a bigger cost to the merchant, which hurts in case of small businesses

[starwind]

AmEx has special rates small businesses can apply for that keep the credit card transaction fees pretty competitive

[selimthegrim]

Does anyone know what AmEx is doing wrt Russia?

[Johnny555]

Google knows:

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+amex+doing+wrt+russi...

American Express Suspends Operations in Russia and Belarus