Amex has customer service at least an order of magnitude better than any Visa/MC licensee I’ve dealt with; that’s really what you’re paying for. If something goes wrong with a purchase, they’ll tend to make it right without asking many questions/filling any forms. Lost cards can be next-day’s without charge. They have actual physical offices in non-US nations that can advance you local currency and provide you a new card (among other things) should your wallet be stolen while traveling.
Having utilized card services and customer support heavily for almost two decades with a number of card co’s made me very much an Amex partisan.
The only payment service I’ve had fraud trouble with is PayPal. Their customer service is the worst. I recently bought something through PayPal, and it was amazing to see how hard a fraudulent seller could take their system.
Having utilized card services and customer support heavily for almost two decades with a number of card co’s made me very much an Amex partisan.