is there anyone in the world who carries only an Amex card

Yeah, me, so long as you don't count debit cards. Too many years of credit card abuse convinced me I'm unable to handle a revolving account (do they still call them that?) That little "Minimum Amt. Due" note was, and probably still is, too enticing.

My company just changed over to AMEX so that's the only company card I carry, which is inconvenient at times. Personally, I just cut up our AMEX cards also, because of the annual fee.

I should have excluded company cards, as I know that's a common practice. I had one as a corporate drone, and MLB carries one issued by her employer.

Scott, it's been years since we've even looked at that "minimum amount due" total. Different enticements for different folks, I guess.

Well, we carry only one card, but it's a Master Card. I had a corporate AmEx at one point, but hated it - didn't find them overly great to deal with even when part of a larger corporate account.

Credit card processing fees, however, drive me insane. I have a little home-based buisness (of the Mary Kay, Pampered Chef ilk) and I always hate it when customers whip out any credit card, because it really eats into profit. And frankly, I don't get why card companies continue to charge it - it's not like they're struggling for cash. They make their money on interest and late fees - why must they also stick it to the merchant who is in effect doing them a favor by offering them a chance to make money because of a card carrier incurring late fees and interest payments?

If we were a country of people who paid them off every month, and the interest was an exception, not the rule, I might understand. But since we're a "play now, pay later" society (on the whole) do they really need the extra 3.5%+ each time I have a customer who wants to charge their order? Every now and again I go back to considering just not accepting credit cards - so I totally understand businesses who choose not to accept them.

If you use it right, the base Amex card does have the advantage of creating a bit of self-discipline, in that you have to pay it off on a month to month basis, as opposed to other cards where you build up debt through revolving charges by only paying the minimum balance. But over the past 15 years, the company has allowed more loopholes, via the ability to put travel and hotel expenses on a revolving charge option and their secondary cards (Optima, Blue, etc.) that do allow you to build up credit card debt by pushing the bulk of the card's fees to a later date.

Beth, the problem for the small business owner is that some people just won't patronize a store that doesn't accept credit cards. One possibility is to either add a surcharge for credit card us or offer a discount for cash (the latter probably being more palatable to all concerned), but that increases your overhead.

One thing I can't do is fault the companies for wanting to make as much money as they can. That's a fundamental tenet of business in a free market economy, as long as they're going about it legally. If enough businesses react as you do and stop accepting their cards, they will do something about the problem...but it's hard to imagine any kind of collective action like that occurring. Too much incentive to keep taking cards, in the main.

John, I guess it depends on how much balance you'd be carrying month-to-month on a revolving credit kind of card, but you can't ignore Amex's annual fee. That's just interest in a different skin.

Eric:
actually I think there are quite a few people who only carry and AMEX card. I am speaking of course from a business standpoint. The standard issue company card we use is the AMEX corporate card. I have to say, I avoid places that don't take it, because it is a pain in the butt to fill out an expense report for cash out of pocket. Also, if you'll notice at lunch time around Midland, most of the diners are "customers" and "clients". I would venture a guess many of them are only issued AMEX corporate cards as well.

Besides that I am a Dave Ramsey, shaven-headed kool-aid drinker and got rid of all my other cards years ago. We use the envelope system now.

Scott, as I said, I was remiss in not limiting my observations to non-business use, where the motivations for and implications of using a credit card are quite different. I daresay that the vast majority of those business card carriers don't use the card for personal purchases (assuming their employer allows that use), for the same reasons you cite...primarily the pain of segregating out the purchases and reimbursing the company for them.

We, too, share an almost pathological aversion to debt, although we go about it in a different manner. In fact, over the past three years, we've averaged $2,000/month on our credit cards... and have paid not a penny in interest.

Thanks for dropping in...

I carry my Amex as my primary form of currency, and have my Visa Checkcard as a backup, but I really do use it as a backup. And while I don't actively avoid places that don't take Amex, if I have a moderately close choice between one that does and one that doesn't, I'll take the one that does (which is why I shop more at CompUSA than Frys.)

Well, of course what I meant to say was that everybody I know who carries an Amex card carries nothing else... t's all-sufficient!

I guess if you have to pay to use a credit card, you might as well use it to the exclusion of the, um, free ones. ;-)