Planning a 5-day visit to Hong Kong, with Disney Land being the main destination. I have an American Express card that I rarely use, and I would love to abuse it in this trip.
Is American Express widely accepted in Hong Kong?
asked Dec 7, 2019 at 12:28
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13Is American Express widely accepted anywhere?– hojusaramDec 7, 2019 at 14:17
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7In fact, in Saudi Arabia the acceptance is great.– Nean Der ThalDec 7, 2019 at 17:24
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4@hojusaram American Express is pretty universally accepted in the United States, in my experience, these days, with the exception of the occasional very small retailer with old terminals.– Matthew FitzGerald-ChamberlainDec 7, 2019 at 22:59
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@MatthewFitzGerald-Chamberlain and Chinese and Mexican restaurants...– xuq01Dec 8, 2019 at 6:50
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4@hojusaram In Japan acceptance is great, due to a reciprocal agreement with JCB. The only problem is that the acceptance of any credit card at all is not so great...– xuq01Dec 8, 2019 at 6:52
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2 Answers
I just consulted some friends who live in Hong Kong: no, Amex is not widely received in Hong Kong at all. In fact, not even Hong Kong Monetary Authority's centralized payment system (Faster Payment System) support American Express. Only perhaps high-end department stores, luxury hotels, and restaurants catering to western guests take them. Better forget about Amex in Hong Kong.
I still like Amex, but the reception of Amex is spotty at best outside the USA. If you really want to abuse your Amex card while in Asia, I suggest you do so on a trip to Japan, since Amex has a reciprocal acceptance agreement with JCB in Japan and is thus quite commonly accepted.
It's better in Hong Kong than in mainland China but it's not great. You can certainly use it in hotels and high end stores & restaurants, but I highly recommend bringing a Visa or Mastercard as well.
Personally I tend to avoid stores and restaurants in China/Hong-Kong that accept Amex since it's a clear indication that they are overpriced and have high mark ups. Amex charges the merchants significantly higher fees than Visa or MC. One way or another the merchants need to recover those extra fees. In one hotel in London I had to pay 3% extra for using Amex instead of Visa/MC.
In my opinion/experience these days Amex has no benefits in terms of insurance, rewards, points, cash-backs, support etc., they are significantly worse in terms of cost & fees and acceptance outside the US is spotty at best. Time to dump them.
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1In many countries outside of the US, Amex cards are the only way to get any decent amount of miles you are able to use for anything useful.– jcaronDec 8, 2019 at 1:11