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American Express to leave Hungary
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According to index.hu, OTP Bank will recall all American Express (Amex) citizen credit cards and replace them with Mastercard Bonus cards until the 31st of next January. Since OTP was the only one to have Amex citizen cards, the company leaves the Hungarian citizen segment with this step.
Index was informed that OTP Bank plans on replacing its American Express citizen cards with Mastercard Bonus cards due to the end of the two companies’ collaboration. Rumours about this step have been going around the market, but it seems to be a fact now, as the bank started notifying its clients.
No big change is expected in the Hungarian card market, because out of the three leaders, Mastercard, Visa and Amex, the first two have always been the outstanding market actors.
The corporate Amex cards stay under the control of Amex, so the company keeps its role in the Hungarian corporate segment. It is believed that OTP won’t issue new Amex cards from the 17th of July, while the old ones will be replaced upon their expiry date or until the 31st of January, 2018. If one wants to speed up the process, one gets a credit entry of 2,000 forints (~EUR 6.5).
In Canada, Costco trashed AMEX for Mastercard as they began cutting back on bonuses, yet dinged the retailers or stores a fee of up to 6%. I couldn’t use the card in most places except a few restaurants and some gas stations. I felt like a second class citizen whenever i pulled it out, nobody was accepting it. AMEX, good riddens! Stay with Mastercard or Visa second, they both offer better for less.