By no means earth shattering news, but this week we started accepting American Express and Discover Card as additional forms of payment for subscribers.

Since the launch of our service in January 2007, we have accepted both Visa and Mastercard. These two companies command a large share of the market, but it is always interesting to understand how their market share, and those of they competitors have changed over the years. In 2006 – based on purchase volume – Visa had 60%, Mastercard had 27%, and American Express had 11% of the market. Overall however, as credit card specific usage has dropped over the years, the debit card component of both businesses has grown. What is most interesting (and important) about American Express is that it the 3rd largest issuer of credit cards (after Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase) but has the highest volume (this mean Amex users put a lot on their cards). This is due in part to the fact that a majority of small and medium sized businesses (like online sellers) rely primarily on American Express. (50% of medium size business cited Amex as their primary expense card in 2002)! A little bit of credit card trivia – but more payment options is always a good thing for customers. Source: The Nielson Report