I don't think American Express card have ever been a practical way of paying for things in Europe.

I would guess 90% of Europeans have never even seen one of these cards, unless they work in international hotels or tourist places.

I'm Dutch, and my dad had both an American Express and a Diner's Club card from his work. I never really understood why those would be better than other credit cards.

I got assigned an American Express card to pay for expenses when I got a job with British Gas about 20 years ago. It was a bit of a pain because it often wasn't accepted. There was definitely some sweet deal for BG to use Amex as, as has been said above 90% of Europe were using Visa/Maestro

In Poland AFAIK when you sign up for a card terminal the company that lends it to you usually gets a cut from the transactions (besides the bank and card companies).

And there is a lower % for normal/popular cards (Visa/Mastercard) and higher (even 4%) for Amex, so most stores just ignore it and remove the Amex symbol from their terminal.

And yet, my company provides Amex corporate card for bussiness travel, but we usually go to US, so Amex is more accepted there.

> It's even written into some classic books and movies.

That was one of the deciding factors when I was planning on getting a second credit card (so I'd have a backup while travelling).

I knew here in Australia they are not widely accepted, with only major retailers accepting it typically, but I thought that this was just Australia being backwards.

After spending the first two or three weeks trying to pay for things with it, I gave up except on checking into a new hotel.