Toll-free·Calls Customer Service·Most popular American Express number
Q:How do I get a live human at American Express?
A:When asked "How can I help you," say "Representative" (you will be asked twice). Say "Representative" again. Then press 0. Next, press #. When asked for "Account Number," press 0.
Q:Does American Express offer 24 hour customer service?
A:Yes! This call center operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.The least busy day is Sunday, and the most busy day is Friday. Details
Q:How long will I have to wait on hold?
A:The average hold time is 14 minutes.The longest hold times are on Tuesday, and the shortest are on Friday.
Toll-free · Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages OR state your card number and hold for a representative. · Please tell me in a few words how I can help you. (Respond to the question.)
Toll-free · Use this number for getting help with American Express gift cards · Gift Card Customer Service Line - Please enter your 15-digit card number.
Toll-free · Use this number for help with Merchant Services · Merchant Services Line - Please tell me why you are calling today. (Respond to the question.)
How do I get through the phone menu to a real live person?
GetHuman researchers routinely call this American Express phone number to document the phone system.
Here is our latest tip for weaving through the phone menu to get to a real person the fastest:When asked "How can I help you," say "Representative" (you will be asked twice). Say "Representative" again. Then press 0. Next, press #. When asked for "Account Number," press 0.
Here is how our research team describes the way the American Express phone system greets you: How can I help you today? (Respond to the question.)
Below are some clips we've found from American Express's phone menus and tips that help give an idea of what you will encounter when you call. We've highlighted why they are important as well:
They may ask your reason for calling (instead of a menu)
"Welcome to American Express.
This call may be recorded, monitored, and analyzed for compliance and to improve our systems.
How can I help you today?"
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Monday, April 1, 2024 12:05 PM
They may ask you to say or enter information
"payments, question of charge, here recent transactions, or more options.
I didn't hear you. You can say hear account balance or press one."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 6:05 PM
The first phone menu
"Welcome to American Express.
This call may be recorded, monitored, and analyzed for compliance and to improve our systems.
How can I help you today?
I didn't hear you. Please tell me in a few words how I can help you.
You can say here account balance, payments, question a charge, here recent transactions, or more options.
I didn't hear you. You can say hear account balance or press one.
Payments or press two, question a charge or press three, Hear recent transactions or press four.
More options or press five."
Excerpt from a call with American Express
Thursday, April 4, 2024 7:46 PM
What are the hours and when should I call?
American Express operates the call center for this 800-528-4800 phone number 24 hours, 7 days.The short answer is that you should call on a Monday.This observation and the following section are based on analysis of a sample set of 1,421 calls made in the last 90 days using our free, web-based phone (see above).
An important note: busy times vs hold times vs best time to call
When we refer to busy or less busy times, we are talking about the volume of calls. The busiest times are when the most people are calling this American Express phone number (least busy times have fewer people calling). This high call volume does not necessarily mean that you will have a long hold time when you call. Companies like American Express staff their call centers differently based on the time of day and day of the week, so you may experience a shorter wait on hold at the busiest of times. When we refer to the best time to call, we are referring to the optimal combination of lower call volume and shorter wait times.
The least busy time to call
The least busy day to call American Express is Sunday.The most busy day to call is Friday, which averages 131% more phone calls by comparison.Again, this is based on a sample of 1,421 calls made with our AI-powered, web-based phone in the last 90 days.
Sun
Quietest
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Busiest
Sat
The shortest wait on hold
We measured the shortest hold times to be on Friday.The longest wait in the queue on average occurs on Tuesday.
The best time to call
In summation, the best day to call American Express is Monday.
Why call this American Express number?
Below is a sample of recent calls to American Express, and their purpose. Are any of these similar to the reason you are trying to call?
Card status check: "Checking for my card."
- From a call lasting 2m 3s , Apr 11, 2024 5:04 PM
Balance inquiry: "Just on my balance."
- From a call lasting 4m 8s , Apr 11, 2024 7:36 AM
Request for credit limit increase: "Can I get a limit increase so I can make a $1500 purchase for my house?"
- From a call lasting 11m 11s , Apr 10, 2024 7:57 PM
Requesting new card: "I need an American Express card as a new customer."
- From a call lasting 28m 40s , Apr 8, 2024 9:32 PM
Payment inquiry: "I don't know."
- From a call lasting 2m 22s , Apr 6, 2024 8:07 PM
General inquiry: "I need to speak with customer service."
- From a call lasting 1m 52s , Apr 5, 2024 1:48 PM
Soft credit check request: "Can you see if I'm approved but only do a soft credit check?"
- From a call lasting 4m 49s , Apr 1, 2024 12:05 PM
Applying for new credit card: "I want to find about applying for a new credit card."
- From a call lasting 2m 53s , Mar 28, 2024 2:24 PM
Report lost credit card: "I believe my credit card has been lost or stolen and there are unauthorized charges on it."
- From a call lasting 1m 46s , Mar 27, 2024 4:20 PM
Inquiring about new card: "Where's my new American Express card?"
- From a call lasting 2m 21s , Mar 25, 2024 7:49 PM
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.
Adam has been tirelessly trying to help customers find the best tips and tricks to get through phone trees and writing many guides for prickly customer service problems. He's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inside Edition and Bloomberg.
More Ways to Contact American Express Customer Service
There are of course other ways to contact American Express customer service besides the phone. Below we list the best ones, by medium.
American Express, like many companies, provides customer service on the X platform (formerly Twitter). While it rarely entails live dialogue with a customer service rep, this channel can yield rapid response times and can be a useful option if you have an X/Twitter account.
Some customer service teams, like that of American Express, accept inquiries through Facebook Messenger. This is a good option if you have a Facebook account, and you may even be able to converse live with an agent this way.
As a last, sometimes only, resort- American Express customer service can be accessed through their website. This can entail digging through help articles before finding a form and "being allowed" to submit a problem to their team, and rarely leads to a real-time conversation, which is why GetHuman does not recommend this unless it's the only way.
Conclusion and closing notes
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 Cancel Account, Lost Card, Account Restricted, Card Declined, Update Account Info 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.
GetHuman does not provide call center services or customer support operations for American Express. The two organizations are not related. GetHuman builds free tools and shares information to help customers of companies like American Express. For large companies that includes tools such as our GetHuman Phone, which allows you to call a company but skip the part where you wait on the line to get a live human rep. We continue to work on these tools to help customers like you (and ourselves!) navigate the messy phone menus, hold times, and confusion with customer service. As long as you keep sharing it with your friends and loved ones, we'll keep doing it.
