American Express uses co-branded cards to provide brand-specific perks

American Express is both a card issuer and a processing network

Unlike most credit card companies, American Express issues credit cards and processes payments—something called a closed-loop model. By offering both services, American Express profits from both interest and interchange fees, and also has access to more data on how customers spend their money so it can offer better perks.

American Express caters its business to wealthy cardholders

American Express cards charge high annual fees, but also offer significant rewards and credits. It's just one way the company targets affluent customers who spend higher dollar amounts per transaction and tend to have more transactions than the average cardholder. This strategy decreases the company's risk, since it actually offers credit instead of just acting as a card network.

American Express runs on a 'spend-centric' model, using perks and merchant fees to drive profit

American Express cardholders tend to spend more money per transaction than other credit card users, which makes the interchange fees merchants have to pay to accept American Express cards worth it while incentivizing other companies to pay the interchange fee as well.

Learn more about American Express' membership rewards

American Express is well known for its membership program that allows cardholders to earn points. These points allow members to earn extra benefits and rack up savings at places like hotels, airlines, and restaurants.

American Express has acquired restaurant software companies to elevate its cardholder experience

One of the many perks of American Express cards is dining credits and special reservation access to fine dining restaurants. Since American Express cardholders are often more affluent than other credit card users, restaurants have benefited from increased partnerships with American Express to offer cardholders preferential reservations and premium experiences. In 2019, American Express acquired Resy, a reservation software, and went on to acquire Tock in 2024.

American Express was the first company to offer 'gold' cards to borrowers

American Express began offering gold cards to affluent consumers in 1966. However, other credit card companies began offering similar, premium cards in the 1980s, which quickly became a status symbol for wealthy Americans.

In 2013, American Express became the first credit card company to open an airport lounge

American Express opened its first airport lounge, the Centurion, in Las Vegas more than a decade ago. Since then, not only has American Express increased the number of lounges it has in airports across the country, but other credit card companies have also opened lounges.

Rewards credit cards can offer points, travel miles, and more

For every dollar that a cardholder spends on a rewards credit card, they can also receive benefits such as cash back, airline miles, and more. For many, rewards are the reason they make so many purchases on credit cards in the first place.

The 'Centurion' card is American Express' highest tier, invite-only credit card

The Centurion card or "black card" debuted in 1999 and created the trend of credit card companies' most exclusive cards being black. Centurion cards are technically invite-only, but you can fill out a form to request being considered for the card. It has a $5K initiation fee and a $5K annual fee.

American Express is credited with inventing the traveler's check

In the 1890s, then American Express President James C. Fargo was frustrated that he couldn't get cash while traveling in Europe outside of major cities. Marcellus Berry, an American Express employee, came up with the idea of a traveler's "cheque": a prepaid check, similar to cash, that requires the signature of both the customer and the receiving institution to be valid. American Express never modernized the spelling of the word "cheque" and stopped providing them at the end of 2020.

Two of American Express' co-founders also founded Wells Fargo

Henry Wells and William Fargo formed Wells, Fargo & Co. two years after American Express was created. Wells and Fargo saw an opportunity to expand the express delivery service from the East Coast and Middle America to the West Coast. The two initially asked the American Express board to expand operations, but the board declined, so they decided to create their own company. Today, Wells Fargo is among the top four largest banks in the US.

American Express is one of Warren Buffett's top stocks

Buffett's long investment in American Express is indicative of his highly principled investment strategy. Buffett often invested in longstanding businesses with strong core products and services. As of 2025, Buffett owned around 20% of all American Express stock, and his investment in American Express made up around 16% of his portfolio.

American Express briefly owned Lehman Brothers

In 1984, Shearson, a retail banking company and American Express subsidiary, bought the investment banking company Lehman Brothers—best known for its historic 2008 collapse—for $360M. The businesses were then called Shearson Lehman/American Express. American Express spun off Lehman Brothers with an IPO in 1994 that attracted nearly $3B in new capital.

Bank of America helped establish Visa as a global credit card network business after it rolled out its first credit cards.

At the time, those credit cards were called "BankAmericards." Today, Bank of America owns less than a 2% share of Visa—many other banks (as well as institutional investors) help govern and profit from the network.

American Express created 'Small Business Saturday' in 2010

As small businesses across the US were still reeling from the Great Recession, American Express came up with the idea of "Small Business Saturday" to help drive consumer spending to small businesses. Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday. In 2011, the Senate passed a resolution supporting Small Business Saturday, and, since then, it's become nationally recognized.

See an original Diner’s Club charge card

Before credit cards, there were charge cards from companies like Diner’s Club. While credit cards allow cardholders to carry a balance from month to month (potentially accruing interest), charge cards like Diner’s Club cards had to be paid off right away.

Explore the brands owned by Estée Lauder Companies

While Estée Lauder remains the flagship brand and namesake of the cosmetic conglomerate, the company owns more than 20 premier brands. Some of the brands—like Clinique and Origin—were created in-house, but others—like Tom Ford and Jo Malone—are a result of the company's acquisition strategy, which often targets companies with high-end retail products.

How Sears helped create Discover Card

Sears owned the financial services company Dean Witter, which rolled out the Discover Card in 1986. The Discover Card is just one of many Sears inventions that seems to have outlasted Sears’ peak popularity, including Allstate Insurance and the clothing brand Lands End.

Credit unions, explained

Proponents of credit unions often point to the fact they’re not-for-profit cooperatives instead of for-profit businesses as a key selling point. This explainer dives into what this looks like in action—instead of pocketing the profits from interest rates, credit unions reinvest that money into the products and services they offer. For customers, this tends to create a more personal and community-oriented experience.

Find out how airline mergers created some of today's largest airlines

Four airlines dominate the US commercial airline industry: Delta, United, Southwest, and American. Many of these large companies secured their top spots in the industry via a series of mergers and acquisitions starting in the 1970s, when American acquired Trans Caribbean Airlines.

Companies often use different share classes, like Class A or Class B, to structure ownership

Share classes refer to specific types of company stock that are distinguished by the rights they grant, such as voting power and dividend access.

NFTs have been leveraged by brands to represent physical and digital items

The buzz around non-fungible tokens has faded since 2021 to 2022, when brands including Prada and Starbucks launched their own NFTs. While Prada’s NFTs were linked to limited-edition fashion items, Starbucks’ were part of a loyalty program.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

CostCo's low-cost hot dogs: The strategy of 'loss leaders'

Wholesale food distributors like Sam's Club, BJ's, and CostCo place a premium on cutting costs for their consumers to cultivate brand loyalty. Enter CostCo's enduring $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. It's a classic example of a so-called "loss leader," a product a company loses money on but which keeps customers coming back for more. Learn the history of wholesalers and how selling over 200 million hot dogs in a year builds CostCo's brand.

The EPA partners with other countries to strengthen environmental protection

Through bilateral programs on every continent, the EPA shares American environmental expertise with developing nations and economies in transition. These partnerships support air and water protection, chemical safety, and pollution control, while advancing US environmental priorities abroad.

From 1989 to 2022, Anheuser-Busch had exclusive alcohol ad rights to the Super Bowl

That meant if an alcohol company was not owned by Anheuser-Busch (and later after the merger, AB InBev), it could not advertise during the Super Bowl. This monopoly was part of how Budweiser became known for its Clydesdale Super Bowl ads.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.