For iPhone users who don’t leave home without their American Express card, AmEx recently released a free iPhone app to help you keep track of your account. I wasn’t able to test all of the features of the app, in part because of the type of AmEx card that I use (a Delta SkyMiles AmEx card), but this free app is sure to be useful to any AmEx cardholder, so long as you have one of the following cards:
Green Card, Gold Card, Platinum
Card, Centurion Card [also known as the famous “Black” AmEx card offered to people with substantial net worth who spend more than $250,000 a year on their AmEx card, and no, that doesn’t include me], Zync from American Express, Blue
from American Express, Clear from American Express, Optima
Credit Card, One from American Express, Plum Card from American
Express OPEN, Blue for Business Credit Card, American Express
Corporate Card, TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express, The
Delta Reserve Credit Card from American Express, Delta SkyMiles
Credit Card, JetBlue Card from American Express, Hilton HHonors
Card from American Express or Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card
from American Express
Upon starting the app you are prompted to enter your username and password, the same ones that you use to access your AmEx account online. The app does not store either one, so you have to enter both every time you launch the app. And if you leave the app open without using it for 10 minutes, the app will log you out of your account and ask you to login again. After entering your account info, you will see all of your AmEx cards, displayed by showing a picture of the card and the last five digits of your account (which I redacted in the below picture):
Once you select your card, you can see some top-level account details such as the account balance and next payment due date. You can click on any of the fields with a > at the end to see your actual purchases on your last statement (or recent activity) organized by date, or you can see your payment history. In my tests, information downloaded very quickly to the app.
The app lets you pay your bill if you are enrolled in the Pay by Computer program, but I am not so I could not test that. The app also lets you view your AmEx Membership Rewards, but since I use a Delta card that ties in to SkyMiles rewards, that feature didn’t work for my card. The “Contact Us” button at the bottom bring you to a page that lists various AmEx 1-800 and other numbers that you might want to use to get in touch with AmEx.
The App Store description of the app says that “More features are on the way so watch for updates.” Here are a few that I would like to see. First, it would be nice to have the option to save your username, and possibly also your password although that raises obvious security concerns if you lose your iPhone. [UPDATE 6/3/10: Version 1.2, released on June 3, 2010, added the ability to save the username.] It would also be helpful if the app could tell you the date on which your next statement will close. If you have multiple cardholders on your account, the AmEx website lets you look at all of the purchases of a single cardholder, but the iPhone app currently only lists all transactions for all cardholders. Finally, it would be nice to have some sort of search capability, or at least the option to sort by fields such as merchant.
Even though updates with new features would be welcome, even the current version of the app does a nice job handling the simple tasks that you are most likely to want in an app of this nature — review transactions, see your balance, and see your available credit. If you have an AmEx card, then you’ll want to get this app.
Click here for American Express (free): 