Company refusing particular brand of credit card

[matchmaker]

I recently had to book an appointment to have a cracked windscreen repaired by Auto Windsreens and had to pay the £100 glass excess. The lady taking the call said I could do this with a debit or credit card - "but not an Aqua card". I was paying by debit card, but thought the Aqua Card comment a bit strange as, as far as I know, an Aqua card is simply a brand of Mastercard credit card, albeit aimed at those with a less than perfect credit history.

Is this type of refusal to accept a certain brand unusual? I know that many places refuse to accept Amex, but that is because of the commision charged by them.

[wyson]

I am guessing it's something to do with fraud and chargebacks because that is a bad credit score card.

[WY86]

I remember American Express was not widely accepted due to the merchant fees attached to it. Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

[alscar]

WY86 said:

I remember American Express was not widely accepted due to the merchant fees attached to it. Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

Online or in store ?
I’ve used both Barclaycard and Amex in store.

[Shiv_P]

WY86 said:

I remember American Express was not widely accepted due to the merchant fees attached to it. Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

Costco accepts everything I have, mastercard / visa / amex

[cuprabob]

WY86 said:

Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

I know it used to only accept Amex but I'm sure that's no longer the case. There was a time not so long ago that M&S would only accept their own brand credit card.

[Jamescrs]

I know many years ago when I worked in retail, so over 20 years ago AMEX was not popular due to the fees they charged retailers, some simply wouldn't accept it, never heard of anyone refusing a specific brand of Mastercard or Visa though, I guess the retailer has been bitten by Aqua at some point.

[anonymous-user]

cuprabob said:

WY86 said:

Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

I know it used to only accept Amex but I'm sure that's no longer the case. There was a time not so long ago that M&S would only accept their own brand credit card.

Getting old. Nearly a quarter of a century ago! 23 years to be precise.

[cuprabob]

Roman Rhodes said:

cuprabob said:

WY86 said:

Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

I know it used to only accept Amex but I'm sure that's no longer the case. There was a time not so long ago that M&S would only accept their own brand credit card.

Getting old. Nearly a quarter of a century ago! 23 years to be precise.

Doesn't time fly

[Catastrophic Poo]

WY86 said:

I remember American Express was not widely accepted due to the merchant fees attached to it. Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

Well thats a lot of guff.

[Catastrophic Poo]

wyson said:

I am guessing it's something to do with fraud and chargebacks because that is a bad credit score card.

Likely this, there will be some type of spike on aqua cards.

It’s nothing new, PayPal didn't accept MasterCard from Romania a few years ago for similar reasons.

[Michael_B]

Amex fees used to be 6% for our size of in-shop retail turnover (~CHF100k/year, most transactions being B2B prepayment or 30 day invoice via bank transfer for a total turnover of ~CHF20 million/year), so we never even signed their merchant contract.

We charge 2% (our cost) on top for those wishing to pay with a non-Swiss VISA/Mastercard, nothing (and we eat the CHF0,23 flat-rate transaction fee) for domestic Swiss cards, or failing that it's prepayment by bank transfer (via phone app, TWINT, etc) before the goods can be taken away.

Recently Amex lowered their fee to 3%, so we now offer this possibility if the client is willing to pay the same percentage on top. However most items we sell would be capital expenditure for our clients, so even their own accounting departments are not that keen on such transactions being made by card. I'm certainly not greatly pleased when any of our staff do similarly!

[J210]

WY86 said:

I remember American Express was not widely accepted due to the merchant fees attached to it. Costco is an interesting one it only accepts one brand of credit card.

Costco used to only accept Amex. Party due to having a deal with them. As you could get a Costco Amex. Now they accept all cards and new Costco card is a Mastercard

[Evanivitch]

Still plenty of places won't accept AMEX, but it has gottenuch better.

[WY86]

My bad my bad, didnt realise Costco opened up their credit card options.

[douglasb]

Jamescrs said:

never heard of anyone refusing a specific brand of Mastercard or Visa though,

I have a Halifax Clarity Mastercard which is great for spending on holiday but which regularly gets refused for online purchases. Any UK "in-person" purchases are fine and Amazon are also fine with it but I've found that it is often refsued on a first transaction with an online company.

One time when I got the "Your bank has refused this transaction; please contact them" I phoned and was told something along the lines that "It's not a full Mastercard but is mainly intended for foreign currency tranansactions".

[cuprabob]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

DVLA charges an additional fee if a corporate card credit card is used, whereas if its a personal one they don't, although they did in the past.