Card machine that takes American Express UK
American Express is accepted by every major UK acquirer but at higher fees than Visa or Mastercard. UK SMBs sometimes turn AMEX off to manage costs; high-value or business-customer-heavy merchants leave it on. Knowing which acquirers price AMEX well matters.
Who cares about this
UK SMBs with B2B or higher-value customers (consultants, hotels, restaurants in tourist areas, wedding venues, jewellers). Also businesses where the customer base skews older / more affluent.
UK acquirers that support it
- SumUp, Zettle, Square, Dojo, Worldpay, Barclaycard, Elavon, Stripe, Tyl, Tide, Adyen, all UK acquirers support AMEX.
UK acquirers that don't (or with limits)
- Some merchant-services brokers may default-decline AMEX in standard contracts; verify before signing.
How it works
AMEX runs on its own scheme (separate from Visa / Mastercard). Acquirers either bundle AMEX into a blended rate (higher than Visa/MC alone) or charge AMEX separately at a higher per-transaction rate. SumUp, Square and Zettle charge their flat rate including AMEX. Dojo, Worldpay, Barclaycard charge AMEX separately at 1.5-2.5% above their Visa/MC rate.
Watch outs
- Bundled-rate acquirers are simpler but often more expensive at low AMEX volume.
- Separate-AMEX-rate acquirers are cheaper if AMEX is a small share of your card mix.
- Direct AMEX merchant agreements (separate from your acquirer) used to give better rates; mostly absorbed into acquirer programmes now.
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Open quote form →Last reviewed: 2026-04-26.