If you carry an American Express card in the UAE, your everyday shopping just got a lot easier. Amex has struck a deal that opens up more than 85,000 additional locations across the country where you can now tap or swipe your card, from small shops to online stores.
The move comes through a partnership with Network International, one of the region’s big payment processing firms. Until now, plenty of small and medium-sized businesses connected to Network’s payment systems simply didn’t accept American Express. That gap is now closing, and fast.
Why UAE shoppers and small businesses both win
For cardholders, this is straightforward good news. American Express has built its brand around rewards, points and premium perks, but all of that only matters if you can actually use your card where you shop. Adding 85,000 new locations means fewer moments of embarrassment at the till when a merchant says “sorry, we don’t take Amex.”
For merchants, especially smaller retailers and online sellers, the benefit works the other way. Many small businesses have avoided signing up for American Express in the past because it meant separate paperwork, a different settlement process, and extra admin compared to other card networks. Under this new arrangement, those merchants can now accept Amex through the very same onboarding and settlement system they already use for other payment methods. That removes a real barrier that had kept a lot of UAE SMEs out of the Amex network.
This matters more than it might first seem. The UAE’s retail and e-commerce scene is packed with small and medium businesses, from boutique stores in Dubai malls to online shops run out of a spare room in Sharjah. If those businesses were previously turning away Amex customers, they were leaving money on the table. Now that friction is gone, or at least a lot smaller.
What this means for everyday spending across the UAE
American Express itself framed the update around convenience. In its own words, cardholders “expect to use their American Express Cards wherever life takes them,” and the company called this agreement with Network an important step toward making that a reality for everyday spending, not just big-ticket purchases at five-star hotels or airlines.
That’s a meaningful shift in tone. Amex has traditionally been seen in the UAE as a card for premium spending, big flights, luxury hotels, high-end retail. Widening acceptance to tens of thousands of smaller, everyday merchants suggests the brand wants to be part of your regular shopping routine too, not just your holiday budget.
It’s also a signal about where UAE payments are heading generally. As more business news around the region shows, both banks and fintech players are racing to make card and digital payments as frictionless as possible for both shoppers and small merchants. This deal fits that pattern: fewer excuses for a business not to accept a particular card, and fewer moments where a shopper has to reach for cash or switch cards mid-checkout.
For international visitors and residents who rely on Amex while travelling or working across the Gulf, this also brings the UAE more in line with how the card functions in markets like the US or UK, where acceptance is broader and more consistent across small businesses.
None of this changes existing Amex rewards, fees or terms, based on what’s been announced. The change is purely about where you can use the card, not what you get for using it. But for anyone who has ever had a card declined at a small shop or a local online store, that’s still a genuinely useful upgrade.
What to watch next is how quickly these 85,000 new merchant locations actually roll out in practice, and whether SME adoption keeps climbing as more small businesses realise they can now accept Amex without extra hassle. As reported by Arabian Business, the partnership is expected to widen American Express acceptance across the UAE significantly, particularly among smaller retailers and online sellers who had previously stayed outside the network.
