American Express, or AMEX, is among the most recognisable names in the financial world. What several customers who have MasterCard or Visa credit cards in their wallet are interested in, is what is the difference between these two companies and American Express. Well the difference is quite simple.

Visa and MasterCard make their money by charging the retailer a fee for using their payment system, and also sometimes by charging your bank for issuing the card. None of this effects you directly however.

American Express is a extremely different arrangement. Not only do they’ve their own payment system, but they also issue their cards directly to customers. So they’re running the whole show. If a card says American Express on it, you know instantly who issued it, what payments system it utilises and everything else about the card.

While Visa and MasterCard are probably far more prevalent payment methods worldwide, American Express is rapidly expanding its network. Both Visa and MasterCard are accepted at over twenty million locations worldwide and these are spread around over one hundred and fifty countries. This makes them truly global payment methods. American Express still lacks this degree of saturation. There are places in the world where Visa and MasterCard are accepted widely but American Express is more hard to use.

However, American Express has its own benefits, particularly for customers in Europe and North America. In these countries the card is accepted widely. The company also offers very attractive credit cards. They’ve good rates, good reward schemes and good customer service. If you want a card guaranteed to give you a high standard of service, and that still carries a little bit of extra exclusivity now that Visa and MasterCard are so prevalent, then American Express, or AMEX, is a good safe choice.

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At its simplest, an affinity card is one which identifies the cardholder with a particular company, organization, or field of interest. The card will generally have a visual design to reflect this link, and will also offer some benefit related to the affinity topic in question. A good example is a hotel chain affinity card. If a credit card account holder travels a lot on business or for pleasure, and has a favorite chain of hotels to stay in, then a credit card linked to these hotels can offer benefits such as discounts on room reservations, a points program which lets you build up credits for free meals or use of facilities, or even access to advanced concierge services to make your stay in a new city more enjoyable.

A hotel card such as this is an example of where affinity cards and rewards cards meet and overlap, but the affinity card will have a more tightly focused reward scheme than the general card.

Another kind of affinity card which has grown in popularity over recent years is a charity credit card. In several ways, these cards can be viewed as variations on cashback credit cards, where a small percentage of everything you spend using the card is refunded. The crucial difference with a charity card is that instead of the cashback being credited to your account or sent to you in the form of a check, it’s instead donated to the charity or charities linked to the card.

Closely related to charity cards are sports affinity cards. These operate in much the same way, but instead of donations being given to charitable organizations, they are instead passed on to the card holder’s favorite sports team. By holding one of these cards, you can help support your team financially, while also declaring your support with your teams logo or badge emblazoned on the card itself.

The final kind of affinity card could be loosely termed a lifestyle card, and rather than giving you direct rewards or supporting your favorite organization, they’re simply run of the mill credit cards that visually reflect an interest or hobby – for example, your favorite TV show, or work of art.

So are affinity cards worth using? In general, they probably will not offer such a great range of features as a market leading general credit card, but if you can find one that closely fits your lifestyle, then they can be very attractive and well worth applying for.

You can find the Chase credit card offer online at their website, http://www.chase.com.  Simply look for the card called the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard. There are various credit card services offered along with this card that consumers find attractive.

• When you use your Chase PerfectCard MasterCard to purchase gasoline for the first ninety days, you receive six percent of your purchase price back on your card. So you can go to any gas station anywhere and fill up your car or truck knowing that six percent of your bill will come back to you.
• After your initial trial period of ninety days is complete, Chase gives you three percent back on all gas purchases. Anywhere you fill up your tank, you get this rebate benefit. This is better than having a traditional gas credit card with only one gas company, as you’d not have the freedom and flexibility you’ve with the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard.

• But the rebate deals do no stop there. You also receive one percent of all your purchases made on other products and services. This means that no matter what you buy with your Chase credit card, or when or where you buy it, you receive one percent of your purchase price in the form of a rebate. The one percent will be credited to your account for use in the future. Most cards only offer cash back rewards like this.
• With the Chase PerfectCard MasterCard, there’s no annual fee. This is a great deal. You get rebates on all your purchases and you don’t have to pay a fee for the credit card services.
• Chase also offers you the all important feature of quality customer service. The Chase customer service hotline is available to you where ever you live or travel at any time of day. If you’ve a question about your rebates or a requirement to review your account information, the Chase customer service representatives are at your disposal. And remember that Chase is a banking institution that has been around for several years and is among the most reliable financial companies you can find.

Traditionally, card processing worked by dialing up your merchant account to approve the card which caused potential delays, due to the slowness of the connection. Wireless payment processing, on the other hand increases the effectiveness of accepting payments at your primary location as well as point of sale transactions on the road.

Some wireless credit card payment working units are small enough to fit in your pocket. These little payment processing units can be connected to small thermal printers, so you can even give your customers a receipt. The best thing about wireless service is that, it’s uncomplicated and relatively easy to set up. The advantages of long-range wireless processing are many, as you can process payments anywhere due to the presence of your mobile provider or wireless provider.

Not only will your cost basis be lower, but you can also clear transactions more quickly than manual or hand entered transactions. You can eliminate any potential delays, speed up checkout times and keep your checkout lines moving more smoothly. By swiping credit cards you get lower rates. This one feature alone can save hundreds of dollars per month. Obviously, there’s increased security because wireless processing reduces the amount of cash you and your staff handle.

So,what are you waiting for? Go ahead, expand your business,accept payments anytime, anywhere and watch your sales increase.