Restricted Payments

Prohibited Category
Airlines & Air Carriers (including charter airlines)
Bail/Bail Bond
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Bankruptcy Services
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Bullion
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Car Rental Agencies
Cash at Point of Sale / Cash on Card
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Charities

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Check Cashing/Guarantee
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Child Pornography

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Collection Agencies

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Commercial Leasing

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Credit Financing

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Credit Restoration
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Debt Repayment
(past due or defaulted)
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Digital File Hosting (Cyberlockers)

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Door-to-Door Sales
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Escort Services
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Foreign Exchange
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Gambling

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Indirect acceptor models

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Investments

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Licensed Insolvency Practitioners
Lodging – Hotels, Motels, Resorts (including “branded” Central Reservation Services)
Marijuana-Related Businesses

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Multi-level Marketing / Pyramid Selling
(also referred to as Direct Marketing – Inbound/Outbound Telemarketing)

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Online Adult Entertainment
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Payday Lending

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Payment Facilitator / Aggregator / Master Merchant / Payment Aggregator / Third Party Service Provider ("TPSP")

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Pharmacies (Card Not Present)
Political Party Donations
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Prostitution
Real Estate Down Payments
Steamships & Cruise Lines (including onboard cruise shops)
Telemarketing - Travel Related
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Timeshares

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Tobacco and Smokeless Tobacco Retailers (Card Not Present)
Travel Agent/Tour Operators
Unregulated Massage Parlours
Virtual Currency / Cryptocurrency

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Wire Transfers In-Person (not online)

Description
All airline and air carrier merchants, including charter airlines.
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A sum of money paid by a criminal defendant to be released from jail under the condition that they appear for court appearances.
A company or agency that is in the business of recovering money owed on delinquent accounts or supporting the bankruptcy process.
Bulk metal in bars or ingots. Examples include: Gold, silver, platinum, palladium bullion Gold, silver, platinum, palladium bars Precious metals
Branded and non-branded car rental agencies.
Cash or cash-like transactions from financial and non-financial institutions.
A non-profit, non-political organization that collects donations, including fundraising. This category also includes donation crowdfunding merchants that accept donations on behalf of individuals raising money for various causes without any expectation of repayment and without any additional perceived or actual financial or tangible benefit.
A business that provides customers with a way to turn a check into cash without having to rely on a bank account.
An individual or entity providing or associated with the visual depiction of a minor engaged in obscene or sexually explicit conduct, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means.
A company that lenders use to help recover funds that are past due. Examples include: debt collection agencies, factoring companies, and liquidators.
A business that conveys land, real estate, equipment, or other property, to another for a specified time in return for regular periodic payment. Examples include commercial real estate and commercial vehicles, such as trucks and marine vessels. This does not include residential Real Estate Agents and Managers – Rentals (MCC 6513).
A merchant that provides financing to customers, earning revenue on that financing via fees and/or interest. Examples include: credit cards, personal loans, student loans, car loans, and mortgage payments.
A service aimed at improving credit ratings by disputing errors and outdated claims with credit bureaus.
A company collecting payment of overdue debt. Examples include: a payment to a collection agency, factoring company, liquidator, or insolvency practitioner/lawyer.
Online data hosting services that provide remote storage space within a secure storage architecture; they can be accessed globally over the Internet. Cyberlockers are also referred as ‘online storage’ or ‘cloud storage’.
Unsolicited individual (who may go from door to door) selling goods and/or services with immediate payment expected.
A business, agency, or person who, for a fee, provides or offers to provide a companion.
A business or financial institution that has the legal right to exchange one currency for another currency.
The wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the primary intent of winning money or material goods. Examples include: Regulated (real money) betting, including casino, poker, sports betting, lottery tickets, Advance-deposit wagering, including horse/dog racing, Fantasy sports, Skill-based, pay-to-play games that award monetary prizes, Games of chance that are not free to enter and award monetary prizes, Government-owned and other lotteries, Gambling chips, Gambling credits
A payment intermediary that contracts with American Express to facilitate payments to multiple, eligible third-party End Beneficiaries. The Indirect Acceptor accepts the Card but does not send Card information to the End Beneficiary and pays eligible End Beneficiaries using another method, such as bank transfer, cheque, or wire. Examples include: bill payment providers, staged digital wallets, stored value digital facility wallets (top-up wallets), peer-to-peer wallets, centralised payment platforms, marketplaces, and instalment payment providers (buy now pay later or BNPL).
A purchase made for speculative purposes, or with the intent of future profit or appreciation. Examples include, but are not limited to, securities (stocks, bonds, commodities, and mutual funds), wine with delivery that exceeds 1 year from purchase, and investment on futures.
A professional intermediary in insolvency procedures.
Branded and non-branded lodging establishments.

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Any individual or entity that manufactures, processes, distributes, or dispenses marijuana, or byproducts or derivatives of marijuana, whether for recreational or medicinal purposes, and whether or not subject to a governmental licensing regime.
A sales system that uses one or more of the following practices: participants pay money for the right to receive compensation for recruiting new participants. a participant is required to buy a specific quantity of products, other than at cost price for the purpose of advertising, before the participant is allowed to join the plan or advance within the plan. Participants are knowingly sold commercially unreasonable quantities of the product or products (this practice is called inventory loading). Participants are not allowed to return products on reasonable commercial terms.
A business or entity that provide adult content online in a digital, streamed or other service format via the internet.
A company that lends customers money at high interest rates on the agreement that the loan will be repaid when the borrower receives their next paycheck.
A "Payment Facilitator" (sometimes referred to as an "Aggregator", "Master Merchant", or "Payment Aggregator") is an entity that submits transactions for payment to a payment card network on behalf of other merchants who may or may not have direct relationships with merchant acquirers of the network. In certain regions, American Express designates certain Payment Facilitators as TPSPs that provide services primarily to Sponsored Merchants in specific industries such as Government, Education, Utilities, Residential Rent, and Property, Causality and Health Insurances. A separate agreement and express permission from American Express are required to operate as a TPSP.
Pharmacies that submit Card Not Present transactions.
Membership organizations that promote the interests of or raise funds for a national, state, or local political party or candidate.
A person or business providing sexual services in return for payment.
An initial payment when the real estate is bought on credit.
Steamship and cruise line merchants.
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A business that telemarkets travel related products or services or other travel arrangements.
Selling partial ownership of a property for use as a holiday home, whereby a Cardmember can buy the rights to use the property for the same fixed period annually.
Tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes retailers that submit Card Not Present transactions. Example includes vaping products.
A business that provides travel information and booking services.
A massage parlour that is not registered with a governing body.
Digital money not authorised or adopted by a government. Issued and controlled by its developers and used and accepted among members of a specific virtual community.
A business that specialises in the transfer of money from one location to another.

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