American Express; a ripoff of retail merchants. New York, New York

"Air Miles" American ExCess Rips off the Retailers with a shoddy form of Bribery, called Air Miles!
Air Miles? Is it possible that this is The World's Biggest Ponzi Scheme or Scam, and that America's largest Banks as well as American Express (American Ex-Cess) are participating in it? I claim that it is. While they are scamming the Consumers, they are also Ripping Off the retailers, world wide.



While they are churning the waters to drown the consumers in in a sea of debt, they are taking the merchants who honor their cards to the cleaners as well. All merchants pay a fee when a Consumer hands them a credit card or charge card, a fee called the M.D.r. or Merchant's Discount Rate. That fee usually runs from around 2% to 4%, but American ExCess gets the highest amount of all, about 4%.

They encourage people to use American Ex-Cess cards through the use of a bribe, or by using bribery, and that is: Air Miles. If you are a Consumer, pay attention to this. If you are a Retail merchant, follow this and then...fight back. "Air Miles" is now considered a form of currency, and it is reported to be the second leading currency in the World today. It is said that there are between 7.5 to 9.5 trillion miles in "circulation" and that amounts to billions of dollars.

A goverment has some sort of control over the amount of money printed, but since Air Miles are issued by many different banks, some of them run by CEO's who seem to be more hucksters than astute financial experts, they have no controls and keep printing the money, keep doling out the miles, keep up the steady drum-beat for YOU the consumer to spend more of your money with plastic, and therefore increase the amount of business done on plastic for each Retailer.

And that's how BOTH of YOU get the SHAFT, get RIPPED OFF, get SCREWED. American Ex-Cess charges 4%, as I reported, but they make an agreement with big spenders to refund 2% of that amount to the Card holder. Great. They give a discount. The merchant is not allowed to discount in order to discourage use of the card, but American Ex-Cess shafts them by doing it themselves.

Now, that's a con job, isn't it? If you agree with me, write to Ken Chenault, CEO, at the above address and tell him how angry it makes you. Tell this Millionaire that he appears to be in the same league with guys you read about in the Business Section every day, a GREEDY GREEDY joker who'll do almost anything to make a buck, even resort to bribery in order to shaft the Retailers who make his business a success. And, when you address that envelope, remember, its American Ex-Cess. (or X-Cess, if you wish).

They use the 2% Refunds as a Bribe. They use the Air Miles as a Bribe. The Mafia used Bribes to overcome resistance to their schemes. But, this scheme is even smoother and more clever than anything devised by the hoodlums. This one makes every cardholder a participant in the bribery, because when they take the bait, everyone loses in the long run.

The dishonesty runs full circle. RIP OFF? Certainly. And American Ex-Cess is up to their armpits in the muck. Bribery? Check out your Dictionary; it is all spelled out. Write to Ken Chenault today. Let him know how you feel about it.

Howard
Solvang, California