I'm thinking about opening up a new credit card account because I want to get one that offers great reward points. I've spent a lot of time building my credit up, and now I'm in a position where I should be able to apply for most credit cards. That means that I can choose a card that offers great reward perks, and I can't think of a better place to start than with American Express. Not only does it have a nice ring, but they offer cashback and travel reward perks that I would love to start earning.
Before doing anything though, I need to talk to someone about the reward program and start the application process. I'm not so sure about just signing up online, so it made sense to just call the credit card company directly. Of course, there are probably millions of people with American Express accounts so I was prepared to wait a bit to talk to someone. Between billing issues and fraud issues, there are plenty of reasons why there may be an extended wait to actually talk to a customer service agent.
When I called, an automated voice greeted me with, "Welcome to American Express. How can I help you today?" I replied that I needed to, “Talk to someone about a card," and the recording said back, "That’s new card question, is that right? Yes or No?"
After I responded "yes," I then gave me a long list of options which included, "Okay, New card. If you calling to replace a lost or stolen card, say replace. To confirm a call you have already received, say confirm. To apply for a new American Express account, say apply. To check the status of an application, say status. To add a person to a card, say add a person."
I responded back that I wanted to apply for a card and the automated assistant asked, "Will this new card be for personal or business use?" After saying personal use, it said, "Okay please wait while I connect you to a representative." This part was kind of funny because there was a long message that I had to sit through that said they apologized it may take longer to talk to an agent than normal so I could go online and use their live chat if I wanted. However, once that message was over, a different voice said the wait time was two minutes. Obviously, I just waited the two minutes of elevator music and then I was contacted by an agent. It really was pretty quick and the agent helped walk me through the rewards and the application process so it was worth my time.
This is American Express's best phone number, the real-time current wait on hold and tools for skipping right through those phone lines to get right to a American Express agent. This phone number is American Express's Best Phone Number because 48,744 customers like you used this contact information over the last 18 months and gave us feedback. Common problems addressed by the customer care unit that answers calls to 800-528-4800 include Update Account Info, Cancel Account, Card Declined, Account Restricted, Lost Card and other customer service issues. The American Express call center that you call into has employees from New Jersey, India, Philippines and is open 24 hours, 7 days according to customers. In total, American Express has 4 phone numbers. It's not always clear what is the best way to talk to American Express representatives, so we started compiling this information built from suggestions from the customer community. Please keep sharing your experiences so we can continue to improve this free resource.
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