CONSUMER CREDIT Take My Card -- Please

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The latest revolution out of Boston pits recession-battered restaurateurs against charge-card giant American Express. Steve DiFillippo, owner of Davio's, where a Northern Italian veal-chop dinner for two can run $100, needed to pare costs. He threatened to turn away the American Express card unless Amex reduced its take -- 3.25% of every purchase, vs. 1.7% to 2% for Visa and MasterCard. Last week the combatants struck a truce when DiFillippo accepted Amex's offer of a 2.9% rate, saving him $11,000 a year. Amex also offered him $6,000 of advertising as part of a new nationwide program to rouse diners out of the doldrums. DiFillippo says his complaints to American Express went unheeded until a local newspaper pictured him attacking the plastic card with a butcher knife. That apparently hit a nerve at other restaurants as well, several of which have dropped the card. Now DiFillippo feels vindicated. "We won!" he exults. "They were so arrogant. Now they're actually listening. It is a great victory for us." Says American Express vice president Lawrence Kurlander: "We understand restaurants are having a difficult time. We are sensitive to that."