r/AusFinance • u/Lucky-Pear-906 • 2h ago

Places to use AMEX without a fee Lifestyle

Hey all

Im new to AMEX and looking for places/types of places that take AMEX without charging a fee.

Seems like everywhere slaps on an extra fee besides supermarkets & retail shops like myer/david jones.

TYIA! :)

0 Upvotes

28% Upvoted

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u/j_flaherty 2h ago

For online most places accept PayPal and PayPal lets you add an AMEX card to be your preferred payment method so that’s an easy workaround for most places

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u/Lucky-Pear-906 1h ago

oh wow didnt know that, quite the workaround thanks!

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u/Lucky-Pear-906 1h ago

do you usually cop the amex fee when purchasing things that charge a reasonable amex fee or do you always avoid using amex when providers charge a fee? (i find most around around 1.3-1.5%

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u/tsla420c 1h ago

Anything under $100 I don’t think twice about a fee (unless it’s ridiculous and over 3%). Anything over and 1.5% is the upper limit of what I’ll accept as a surcharge.

Sub 1% fee is nice since at 1 cent per point but earning 2.25 points per dollar it more than pays for itself. 1.5% surcharge is the break even on my card.

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u/link871 2h ago

Isn't that the world of Amex: everything has higher fees.

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u/tangaroo58 1h ago

Yep. Amex charges higher fees to retailers, enough higher that they tend to pass it on.

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u/ThatHuman6 2h ago

What are wanting to buy lol? Your question is a little vague. A bike? Insurance ?

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u/Lucky-Pear-906 1h ago

Nothing specific, just regular things regular people buy in life, bills general spending, etc

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u/ayummystrawberry 2m ago

Origin Energy and NRMA (except green slips) take Amex without a fee. Same with Service NSW. Sydney Water and AGL you have to go via PayPal (same with NRMA green slips)

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u/Even_Saltier_Piglet 2h ago

Not in AU. AMEX isn't a good card. Heaps of extra fees, not a great points system for anything at all and high annual fees and interest.

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u/ZweetWOW 2h ago

I believe AMEX has actually drastically reduced their fees, used to be like 4% and now I think its sub 2% to be inline with other cards - may be wrong but I never paid extra anywhere over my debit card.

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u/nutwals 2h ago

And because of said extra fees, barely anyone accepts it anymore - not worth using anything other than Mastercard or Visa these days.