Home Bargains starts accepting American Express across more than 650 UK stores and online

On 29 October 2026 it was announced that the UK discount retailer Home Bargains has begun accepting American Express cards in its stores and on its website. Acceptance covers more than 650 stores; the retailer employs more than 29,000 people and has said it is working toward 800 stores and 35,000 employees. American Express will promote the new acceptance to cardmembers through targeted emails, digital marketing and social media.

Dan Edelman, UK General Manager for Merchant Services at American Express, said the company is committed to ensuring cardmembers can use their cards wherever they live, work and travel; Phil Hoad, Group Finance Director at Home Bargains, framed the change as giving shoppers more payment options. American Express says its UK acceptance locations have tripled since 2021 and that it was accepted at more than 170 million merchant locations worldwide at the end of 2025. Neither the acquirer nor the processor behind the rollout was named.

Discount grocery and variety retail is the segment that has historically refused American Express in the UK on cost grounds, so a chain of this size switching it on is a direct read on where Amex's UK merchant pricing now sits relative to the card mix it brings. It also moves real volume: 650-plus stores in a high-frequency, low-basket format is a different acceptance profile from the travel and premium retail estate Amex is strongest in, and it shifts the blended rate for a merchant that previously took only Visa and Mastercard.

The tripling of UK acceptance locations since 2021 is the trend this sits inside, and each such win narrows the remaining gap in Amex's UK coverage.

Whether other UK discount chains follow, whether Amex names the acquirer behind the rollout, and whether the acceptance extends to the remaining stores as Home Bargains grows toward its 800-store target.

• thepaypers.com