American Express has always carried a complicated relationship with merchants. The card network that cardholders love for its rewards and benefits is the one that merchants have historically resented for its fee structure, which runs higher than Visa and Mastercard in ways that make every Amex transaction slightly more expensive than the alternatives. Some merchants have responded by simply not accepting American Express, which solves the fee problem at the cost of turning away customers who prefer to pay with their Amex card. Amex merchant services through Dual Payments offer a third option that most merchants haven’t considered: accepting American Express without paying the fees at all.
Amex Merchant Services Without the Fee Resentment
The dual pricing model that Dual Payments uses applies to every card network equally, which means amex merchant services through this model produces the same zero net cost to the merchant as processing a Visa or Mastercard transaction. The card-paying customer covers the processing fee regardless of which network is involved, which means the fee differential between American Express and other networks simply stops mattering from the merchant’s perspective. Accepting Amex becomes a straightforward decision rather than a cost-benefit analysis where the conclusion sometimes comes out negative.
For businesses that have been turning away Amex cardholders to avoid the higher fees, switching to Dual Payments’ amex merchant services model means recovering those sales without the cost that made declining Amex seem like the sensible choice. The customers who wanted to pay with their American Express card and couldn’t can now do so, covering the processing fee themselves, and the merchant collects the same net amount they would from any other payment method.
American Express Fees to Merchants as a Solved Problem
American express fees to merchants are one of the most consistent sources of frustration in the merchant services industry, and they’ve been a frustration precisely because the alternatives have historically been limited to negotiating the rate slightly or refusing the card entirely. Neither option is satisfying. Negotiating gets you a marginally better rate that’s still a rate. Refusing the card costs you sales.
The dual pricing model solves american express fees to merchants at the structural level rather than the negotiation level. The fee doesn’t get reduced. It gets moved entirely to the customer side of the transaction, which means the merchant’s frustration about Amex fees becomes irrelevant because those fees are no longer the merchant’s cost to bear.
Credit Card Machine with No Fees Included
The credit card machine with no fees that comes with switching to Dual Payments is genuinely part of the package rather than a leased piece of equipment whose cost is recovered through the processing relationship. EMV-capable, accepting all major cards and contactless payments, and integrated with the dual pricing software that handles the cash and card price display automatically. A credit card machine with no fees on every transaction starts from the day it’s installed and continues working that way indefinitely, with no introductory period after which the fee-free model converts to something that costs the merchant again.
