the local exchange rate been a week ago 37.85 and is this week 37.90 and as usual climbing week by week.
jrjrth,
where do you get such info from, do you run a business here in the DR and accept CC';s from your customers or do you just "assume" such Info??
I run a business here and yes, I also accept CC's fro my customers, so here's my own experience of 16+ Years with those CC's to compare with.
to accept Am,ex as a Biz Owner You need to use One Company and their Machine and contravt,
and to accept all the otyer credit card providers together such as Visa or Master or Diners or German Bank etc(and a dozen more) You need for all them together just one Machione from one provider, that provider accepts them ALL Minus Amex, and that is the simple reason why most bIz down here do not accept Amex, a aditional machine with additional monthly Fees for the Veriphone for just One single CC Kind anyways used by a few of the numerous Customers, so we Biz owners stick to the One where All minus one are accepted, Customers are very happy with that.
with Visa and Master you go fine here in the DR all around the island where ever CC's are accepted, no need to search or haggle.
Mike
Mike
With the utmost respect I respond to your post as follows;
I get my information from fact, I too run a business and have first hand knowledge of the multifacited complex world of the Merchant Services Industry...
I know that most Merchants are only familiar with their own discounted rate or % of each dollar processed and a possible additional flat rate per transaction fee that the Merchant services provider charges for processing each transaction. What most do not know, or cannot calculate are the bundled fees that are charged along the way for processing fees from the interchange, issung banks, and card associations that are all in the mediator phase of processing money from the issuing bank to the merchant and they all bottom feed on both sides of transactions for both the card holders and the merchants alike.
There could potentially be dozens of rates that can and are charged to the mechant that are bundled into packaged discounted rates in tier levels, these interchange rates are also known as "Qualified", "Mid Qualified" or "Non-Quaiified" fees as is the more typical terms used by Visa and Master Card.
American Express and Discover on the other hand do not participate with the Interchange fee structures being they are both their own processing house of that being the issuing/merchant bank and card association that handle their own processing in house. Merchants using American Express use a "third Party routing fee" as high as $.25US per transaction and they do not share their fees as in the case of the Interchange pratices of Visa and Master Card. Moreover yes American Express and Discover will cost the merchant additional fees for the use of the card, this has not been disputed.
With regard to the Credit Card processing machines, there are many companies that offer 1-stop shopping if you will, that have check readers, scanners, debit pin pads that process all credit cards, checks, and gift cards, however these machines are quite costly and the smaller merchants may not have the POS volumne that would warrant their use. This is why I stated that American Express charging privliges can be found at most of your
Larger chain resturants and grocery stores in the Bavaro area. I would not expect that Alex's Colmado would accept American Express, or for that matter Visa and Master card...its peso and carry.
I hope this sheds some light as to my knowledge of my previous post.
~And Sharktooth777: I did not get charge an exchange fee from American Express due to my platnum status this fee is waived.
