eBay will soon stop accepting American Express cards, citing "unacceptably high" processing fees. In response, American Express has claimed its fees are no higher than any other credit card, and it doesn't need eBay anyway.
In a statement released on Wednesday, eBay announced that American Express cards will no longer work in its online marketplace from Aug. 17. It is currently in the process of notifying users of the change.
"After careful consideration, eBay has decided to no longer accept American Express globally effective August 17 due to the unacceptably high fees American Express charges for processing credit card transactions," said eBay.
"Based on research, we know that the vast majority of eBay customers are willing to use alternative payment options to continue enjoying buying and selling on our marketplace."
Other credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard are currently accepted by eBay, as are payment methods like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo.
eBay also took the opportunity to call for further regulation of credit card networks, stating that it would help increase competition and thus reduce transaction processing costs.
"At a time when payment processing costs should be declining because of technological advancements, investments in fraud capabilities, and customer protections by merchants like eBay, credit card transaction fees continue to rise unabated because of a lack of meaningful competition," eBay wrote.
American Express swiftly responded to eBay's rejection, saying that it is "disappointed" in the decision. It also disputed the characterisation of its fees as high.
"Our research tells us that in the US the cost of acceptance for American Express is comparable to what eBay pays for similar cards on other networks," American Express said in a statement. "We find eBay’s decision to drop American Express as a payment choice for consumers to be inconsistent with their stated desire to increase competition at the point of sale."
The company further stated that eBay "represents less than 0.2% of [its] total network volume," and that people can continue to use their American Express cards "with millions of merchants around the world."
According to Forbes, the average credit card processing fee for merchants ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 percent per transaction, with American Express sitting on the higher end of the scale. While Visa reportedly charges merchants around 1.15 to 2.4 percent, American Express charges 1.43 to 3.3 percent.
A difference of less than one percent may not seem like something to make a fuss about, but it can add up to a significant hunk of cash when applied to the sheer volume of transactions eBay facilitates. Though removing features and limiting options rarely delights customers, it seems as though everyone's trying to cut costs in this economy.
