WeChat reader AstroX recently shared a DP: purchases made in mainland China with a U.S. AMEX credit card were not being identified correctly when they posted.

Generally speaking, AMEX is usually very accurate when it comes to transaction recognition. Misidentification more often happens with Visa or Master credit cards. For example, a Hyatt hotel charge might post as “Kaiyuejiudian,” and Starbucks might post as “Xingbake.” But even if the merchant name is wrong, the purchase category is usually still correct. The main issue is just that the co-branded card’s category bonus may not trigger promptly.

The information provided by AstroX is a bit different. Since this happened on AMEX, it is relatively uncommon.

Background

  • Date: starting January 19, 2021
  • Location: Xi’an
  • Suspected cause: after Bank of China upgraded the POS terminals used for AMEX card payments

Card swipe DP

​1️ A charge at a Ritz hotel was made with an AMEX Marriott co-branded card. While pending, it showed as Doing Business as NEW Merchant (Apple Walletze showed it as an unknown purchase).

2️ Next, let’s look at a Hilton hotel charge. It showed as Xierdun. This time the name was also wrong; again it showed as doing Business as NEW Merchant, and the points earned were also just 1x.

3️ Next is Starbucks, which also showed as doing Business as NEW Merchant.

Conclusion

There are not that many places left in China that still accept AMEX, and with POS terminals being upgraded around the country, many places that used to accept it gradually no longer do. Typical examples include Uniqlo and Zara in many cities: they used to accept AMEX, but after the POS terminal upgrades, they gradually stopped. Readers are welcome to share more DP!

On the other hand, AMEX merchant fees are too expensive, so many merchants simply do not want to deal with it anymore.