Article: SEGA To Stop Accepting American Express for Arks Cash (AC) Purchases

[Tomeeboy]

According to a news post on the official Phantasy Star Online 2 (JP) players site Monday, SEGA will be discontinuing their acceptance of American Express cards for AC purchase in the near future. Players who have purchased pre-paid AMEX cards for the purpose of buying AC should consider using them before this change takes effect.

In the future, only Visa, Mastercard, and JCB will be excepted for AC purchases. This change is likely related to steps SEGA has been taking to add further authentication measures to their online payment processing, though exact details are still unknown. A big thanks to Mike for posting the news in our forums!

Update 10/25: According to a new post on the official PSO2 JP players site, this change is now in effect and American Express will no longer be accepted.

[lostinseganet]

Why do so many companies hate American express? Money is money.

[Tomeeboy]

You may have answered your own question. I believe that out of Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, AMEX charges merchants the highest transaction fees. It is also speculated that their customer service is better, which means they are more likely to take a consumer's side on chargebacks.

Don't know if that has anything to do with this change, but it is likely one of the reasons why the card is not as widely accepted as the others. Those things cost money.

[lostinseganet]

hmmm that is a believable answer...

[NitroPenguinz]

you know, screwing the Americans over with this AC system may be a way to get the American players off of jp servers and onto American servers when they come out

[Arika]

adding further authentication measures to their online payment processing >>>
not sure if that may enable visa out side JP to be able to use again.

[Fontes]

Yes, because there'll be only americans playing on a global server... And there are no other credit cards but American Express.


This is why I'm fine with my visa. Works with almost everything, and if it doesn't, there's always paypal.