American Express credit card
Ranked 2 of 5 credit cards by recommenders
People recommend Amex for dispute resolution, fraud alerts, and strong customer service, and for rewards on dining and travel. Common caveat: merchants often refuse it, with acceptance varying by country.
People recommend Amex for dispute resolution, fraud alerts, and strong customer service, and for rewards on dining and travel. Common caveat: merchants often refuse it, with acceptance varying by country.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 25
- approval share
- 44%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Disputes resolved in cardholder's favor
“I've personally had at least three disputes this year resolved in my favor by American Express”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “the ability to reverse the charge with Amex”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Amazon Seller Reveals Rare Glimpse of Shadow Bribery Market” “If I dispute, I get my money back.”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “How do I cancel my ChatGPT subscription?” - Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “GoPro warned it may not survive”
Helpful, flexible customer service
“Amex were the only one that contacted me and told me they'd detected something weird in the signup.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “American Express: Cell-Based Architecture for Resilient Payment Systems” “Amex is nice about allowing someone who charged you in the past”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Surprise Pay $1000” “they happily refunded me anyway”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “GoPro warned it may not survive” Widely accepted in the US
“I genuinely cannot recall a single instance where I was unable to obtain payment auth in a grocery store using Visa or Amex.”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Revolut down as users report app not working” “legitimately can't remember any place in the US where it wasn't accepted”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn” Rewards and insurance perks
“They also offer all kinds of niche insurance options that are effectively even better”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Booking.com cancels $4K hotel reservation, offers same rooms again for $17K” “2 Aeroplan pts/$ for dining on Amex”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Why payment fees matter more than you think”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Merchants often refuse or limit acceptance
“acceptance varies from pretty good (e.g. germany) to pretty awful”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” “Amex is regularly rejected by businesses and cannot be your only credit card”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “I found AmEx accepted maybe 50% of the time, if not less.”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” - Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “How credit card rewards became a $9.2B wealth transfer”
Fees and merchant costs seem high
“I agree that they are a cartel tax on the economy, but their costs are higher than that.”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “The Parallel Search API” “they take a cut that is easily double or triple of what Visa and Mastercard take”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app” “letting a company like Amex siphon up to 3% of your income away in perpetuity”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” Cards blocked or closed without warning
“American Express just canceled my wife’s card after 15 years because she didn’t fill in her salary data.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Employers use your personal data to figure out the lowest salary you'll accept” “blocks the card when I try to buy dinner that night in that same hotel due to fraud detection”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “American Express: Cell-Based Architecture for Resilient Payment Systems” “Amex got spooked and abruptly closed both my never-late accounts with them”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data - $1.7 BILLION” Clunky tech and login hassles
“American Express tech is some of the worst in the world among big companies.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “American Express: Cell-Based Architecture for Resilient Payment Systems” “Amex forces sms/email 2fa to login on my graphene phone”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away” “the email itself had a "login" button right in the top”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Anti-fraud tools can't keep pace with scammers exploiting cheap internet calling”
Other credit cards people recommend
The four most recommended other credit cards, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Card | 27 | 33 | 45% | 6 | 3 yrs4 owners | — |
| American Express credit cardThis page | 20 | 25 | 44% | 11 | — | — |
| Discover it cashback credit card | 8 | 3 | 73% | 6 | — | — |
| Robinhood Gold Card | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Chase Sapphire credit card | 7 | 2 | 78% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 48 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I genuinely cannot recall a single instance where I was unable to obtain payment auth in a grocery store using Visa or Amex.”
“Pay special attention to how fast the Visa and American Express networks are.”
“Amex has very spotty acceptance rate in Europe.”
“the email itself had a "login" button right in the top”
“Amex got spooked and abruptly closed both my never-late accounts with them”
“Amex has always been built around this idea of trust and prestige.”
“the ability to reverse the charge with Amex”
“Citi or Amex, which require you to verify flagged purchases via thier app”
“sometimes 4 or 5 days before they actually got their payment”
“Amex were the only one that contacted me and told me they'd detected something weird in the signup.”
“blocks the card when I try to buy dinner that night in that same hotel due to fraud detection”
“American Express tech is some of the worst in the world among big companies.”
“Amex is nice about allowing someone who charged you in the past”
“they happily refunded me anyway”
“three-party networks like Amex or Discover”
“Amex is regularly rejected by businesses and cannot be your only credit card”
“I've personally had at least three disputes this year resolved in my favor by American Express”
“I'd recommend a good credit card like Amex”
“They refused on the basis that I agreed (originally) for netflix to take the subscription fee monthly”
“Amex forces sms/email 2fa to login on my graphene phone”
“American Express just canceled my wife’s card after 15 years because she didn’t fill in her salary data.”
“an in-app button to debit my bank for the balance without me having to go to my bank's app to send a bill pay.”
“I've been impressed at how nice their app is compared to the five previous Canadian bank apps”
“2 Aeroplan pts/$ for dining on Amex”
“If I dispute, I get my money back.”
“Now you're lucky if you can get someone who gives a sht.”
“I found AmEx accepted maybe 50% of the time, if not less.”
“letting a company like Amex siphon up to 3% of your income away in perpetuity”
“Amex also offers pretty good rates to low-volume merchants here to have more acceptance to my understanding.”
“acceptance varies from pretty good (e.g. germany) to pretty awful”
“They are johnny-on-the-spot when they get a sniff of fraud.”
“Chase is better, but it's no AmEx.”
“legitimately can't remember any place in the US where it wasn't accepted”
“the damn thing was practically useless”
“they take a cut that is easily double or triple of what Visa and Mastercard take”
“They also offer all kinds of niche insurance options that are effectively even better”
“I think it is lame that 'American Express” feels compelled to buy an Ad on Google”
“They aren't accepted widely internationally”
“for some the Visa/MC/Amex fees seem too high”
“I agree that they are a cartel tax on the economy, but their costs are higher than that.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.