Turning off American Express on Shopify Payments affecting subscriptions

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

A UK-based merchant wants to disable American Express on Shopify Payments for new customers due to higher processing fees (2.7% vs 1.7% for Visa/MC).

Main concern: Whether disabling Amex in payment settings would block existing Recharge subscription customers who currently pay with American Express cards.

Resolution: Shopify Support confirmed it’s safe to disable Amex without affecting existing subscribers. The merchant plans to proceed with the change and will report back with results for others facing similar payment option decisions with subscriptions.

Summarized with AI on November 19. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi,

I currently have Shopify Payments accepting American Express on my store. We use Recharge to take subscription payments with Shopify Payments as processor.

I would like to switch off American Express to new customers - 2.7% fee vs Visa/MC 1.7% processing fee (we’re based in UK).

If I switch off American Express on payment settings, will it block my existing subscribers when they get charged for their subscriptions? I do not want to affect my existing subscribers who use Amex to pay for their subscriptions.

Thanks

Ed

2

I asked Shopify Support and apparently I’m good to switch this off. I will try and post here for anyone experiencing turning off payment options with subscriptions in future.