They charge more in fees, and also pass on more as cashback/bonuses/prizes to customers.

For example, a visa/mastercard might be able to kick back 1~2% for cashback. American Express might be able to go 2~3%.

This is also why a lot of places don't accept Amex, the fees are higher and from the vendor's perspective they offer nothing in return.

PS - The whole credit card system is too expensive, and inefficient, but that's what happens when three or four companies run the whole game.

AmEx also offers a lot of other benefits for the consumer like lengthier chargeback periods and free extended warranties. They'll provide warranty coverage for a year past the manufacturer's warranty on items purchased with the card for no cost; it's the reason I put all my big ticket electronics purchases on my AmEx.

A lot of Visa/Mastercards also offer warranty coverage for at least a year. Not sure why they don't promote this better, but if you look in that little packet of fine print materials they give you, it's usually in there.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is generally competitive with the AmEx Gold Premier Rewards card, is a Visa, has lower fees, no foreign transaction fee, and has better transfer partners, on average (though they don't do their special transfer bonus, if you ever take advantage of those). I wrote a little webapp to help compare card rewards: http://www.creditcardcomparer.org

I still need to add the other side benefits like warranties and the like, though, where the AmEx is generally better.

Tf you live outside of the US or just travel a lot, and have a US account, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is THE card to have. it saves me a lot of money. i like it slightly better than the Starwood Amex just because i can use it more places.

The Starwood AmEx also has a foreign transaction fee of 2.7%, I believe, so there's no real reason to use it outside the US, unless you're at a Starwood hotel and getting a huge bonus that way. In the US it's pretty excellent, though.

Their Blue Cash card w/ 6% cash back on groceries is particularly amazing: http://www304.americanexpress.com/getthecard/learn-about/Blu...

I end up getting about one "small grocery trip" free per month because of that.

I use my Amex personally for both the rewards as well as extra consumer protection. Example: I recently had to re-purchase a plane ticket three times due to extenuating circumstances that the normal travel insurance would not have covered. American Express refunded both tickets from a five minute phone call. Buying the tickets with Amex saved me $1k.

They offer best perks, rewards, and customer protection (at the cost of the merchant who accepts them).

For me, who has also pushed through hundreds of thousands of business dollars, it is all about the rewards program.

It was not uncommon for me to receive several thousand dollars of Home Depot and other gift cards per year.

I actually just bought a $1000 85 gallon water heater from home depot using Amex rewards points.

Based on my experience, American Express has outstanding customer service. I have also heard that they tend to be rather aggressive in their fraud protection program and they way they deal with chargebacks, often taking the side of the cardholder rather than the merchant's.

There are some really great rewards for using it, moreso than other cards.

Because its extremely handy when I'm traveling from the states to Europe.