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Explore BAMS Accept Amex through BAMS payment solutions and receive customized rates based on your specific MCC code, receive deposits in as little as 12 hours and manage your reporting from one integrated dashboard.
For decades, accepting American Express was expensive and had to be handled separately from all other cards. It forced many small merchants to decline Amex entirely, missing out on valuable sales.
Created specifically for businesses processing under $3 million annually in Amex sales, OptBlue removed the traditional Amex signup completely. By putting Amex access directly in the hands of your existing payment processor, Amex went from a premium-retailer-only card to one accessible by 99% of U.S. merchants.
OptBlue changes the underlying economics of American Express acceptance. Here is the process happening behind the scenes.
You no longer negotiate directly with American Express. BAMS will assist to configure your merchant account with the processing network and handle the entire setup, turning Amex on instantly alongside your other cards.
Amex provides processors with a flat wholesale rate. The processor then adds a markup. This fundamental shift is what makes your Amex processing rates fully negotiable.
Your Amex transactions are authorized, settled, and reported in the exact same stream as Visa and Mastercard. One daily batch, one monthly statement, one support channel.
Lowering your rates to as low as 2.30% and transaction fees to $0.10 means significant administrative expense reductions for businesses with high Amex volume. See exactly how it impacts your bottom line.
* To qualify for OptBlue, a merchant must process below $3M per year in Amex volume per Tax ID.
Because OptBlue operates on a "wholesale plus markup" model, your processor controls the final price. To secure the best deal, always ask for interchange-plus pricing to separate the wholesale cost from the markup. You should compare providers based on your effective rate (your total monthly cost as a percentage of sales) rather than just the headline number.
* Rates vary based on volume and industry MCC codes.
Traditional Amex funding takes 3 to 5 business days. This delay creates real cash-flow problems, sometimes forcing businesses onto costly lines of credit. American Express OptBlue solves this with next-morning funding.
Funds reach your bank by 7:00 AM the very next morning (approx. 12 hours).
Funds deposited the following business day.
American Express OptBlue was built specifically for small-to-medium businesses. If you are in one of these core industries and are processing $3,000,000.00 or less per year in American Express transactions per federal tax ID then you are likely eligible for the lowest rates.
Get the facts in writing. Download these complimentary guides to understand your savings and see exactly how the OptBlue program works.
Learn exactly what OptBlue is, why it exists, detailed funding cutoffs, and whether your business qualifies in this comprehensive one-pager.
Download PDFA detailed side-by-side rate table and a statement checklist worksheet to help you uncover hidden fees your current processor isn't showing you.
Download PDFEverything you need to know about switching to OptBlue.
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Read articleFind out exactly how much you could save on Amex processing with a complimentary statement analysis. Let us prove the savings.
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