Where Is American Express Accepted?

Have you ever thought about applying for an American Express only to think to yourself where is American Express accepted? Or perhaps someone has told you that American Express cards aren’t widely accepted in the UK. It’s a popular misconception in the UK that American Express cards aren’t accepted widely. Whilst this may have been true in the past it isn’t anymore. In fact, not only are they widely accepted but American Express has some of the most lucrative (and wide-ranging) products for point collectors on the market so they are a useful tool to have in your wallet.

Where does the misconception of Amex cards not being accepted come from?

American Express used to charge higher rates than Visa/Mastercard when customers paid using their cards. This in turn meant merchants were less willing to accept them. However (many years ago) with the introduction of the European Union’s 0.3% cap on interchange fees, combined with schemes run by Amex such as Amex’s Shop Small has opened more businesses up to accepting American Express cards.

So where is American Express accepted?

All the major UK supermarkets (e.g. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons & Aldi)
Major high street retailers (e.g. Boots, House of Fraser & H&M)
Online fashion stores (e.g. Asos, Boohoo & Pretty Little Thing)
Most major restaurant chains (e.g. Nandos, Pizza Express & Prezzo)
Pubs (e.g. Wetherspoons, Whitbread & Greene King)
Takeaway services (e.g. Uber Eats, Just Eat & Deliveroo)
Taxi services (e.g. Addison Lee, Uber & London Black Cabs)
Petrol stations
Train travel (e.g. National Rail, London Underground & Eurostar)
Amazon
Most airlines (including low-cost carriers such as EasyJet & Ryanair)
And many more!

Top tip: If you find somewhere online that says that don’t accept American Express but they accept PayPal you can usually use your American Express through PayPal

American Express also has a map tool where you can check locations close to you that accept American Express – https://www.americanexpress.com/en-GB/maps

Conclusion

If you are in the market for a points-earning credit card you’d be hard pushed to challenge the variety and generous sign-up bonuses of American Express cards. If you combine this with the fact that most major shops accept American Express you should have no problems at all earning points. You just might need a backup Visa/Mastercard for the odd corner shop! So the next time someone asks where is American Express accepted you can tell them… most places!